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We're halfway through the 2023 F1 season and this one has been very intriguing. We have one driver heads and shoulders above everybody else in the points standings and it's safe to say that Max Verstappen is having a season of his dreams.
There are however other drivers on the grid and it is often fun to take a look at how these drivers have performed in the first half of the season. As a regular practice, we rate the F1 drivers after every race weekend.
The summer break will be the checkpoint where we see how these drivers stack up. In this feature, we're more or less looking at the elites. We're looking at the top 10 drivers in the first half of the season. Who are they? Let's take a look.
Ranking the top 10 F1 drivers in 2023
#10 Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki started the season impressively and challenged a top 10 finish in multiple races before achieving it. The Japanese driver has surely stepped up in 2023 and has become more consistent. He's tapered off a little in the last few races and will be hoping to one-up Ricciardo in the second half of the season.
#9 Nico Hulkenberg
Arguably Hulkenberg has been a little under-appreciated because of the car he's driving. Haas has the tendency to be brilliant in qualifying but struggles in the race. Hulkenberg's race weekends have mirrored that pattern.
Having said that, his dominance over Kevin Magnussen, a driver that secured a pole position last season shows how impressive he has been on his return to F1.
#8 George Russell
He started the season very impressively. The driver did quite a few impressive performances, including his front-row qualifying in Melbourne. Since the Mercedes upgrade in Monaco, Russell has taken a step back. He's made a few mistakes as well including the one in Canada and Monaco.
Not the best first half of the season for George and will be looking to improve in the second half of the season.
#7 Alex Albon
He's completely dominated Logan Sargeant at Williams. When you do this to two different teammates in two years it does show that there's a lot of credibility to what he's doing in that team.
He's had some impressive performances including the races in Canada and Silverstone but there have been a few stinkers as well (Australia was a bad one).
#6 Esteban Ocon
Ocon had a very consistent start to the season and it did somewhat peak in Monaco with a sensational race, culminating in a podium. He's seen a dip lately coinciding with Alpine's drop in form as well. He finds himself in P6.
#5 Charles Leclerc
For Charles Leclerc, it's been a mixture of good and bad. On one side, we have the heights of the F1 race weekend in Baku and then we have the lows of the crash in Australia. His recent consistency helps him make the top 5 although he will be hoping to do a better job.
#4 Lewis Hamilton
The legendary driver has been very impressive this season and has truly come into his own since the upgrade in Monaco. Since then he's truly dominated George and that has come as a surprise to many onlookers. The F1 legend has been brilliant and finds himself in P4.
#3 Lando Norris
He has had a bit of a stop-start season with a few bad ones including the one in Saudi Arabia. Since the McLaren upgrade though, the driver has been top-notch. He's ramped things up very impressively and will be hoping for more of this in the second half of the season. He finds himself in P3 in the championship.
#2 Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso truly showed up at the start of the season when Aston Martin surprised everyone with a front-running car. He continued to rack up consistent F1 podium finishes and has only seen a dip because of a recent drop in form for Aston Martin.
#1 Max Verstappen
It's hard to look beyond as the one that truly stands apart from everybody else in F1 at the moment. With the worst result of P2 the driver has been in a league of his own with only Saudi Arabia and Baku probably being the only two races where he didn't achieve the best possible result.
