2022 F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Driver ratings

The Saudi Arabian GP is done and dusted and now it's time to do the fun part. The drivers did their bit on Saturday and Sunday and now we take out our report card and rate how they fared over the weekend.

So, without further ado, let's jump straight to it.

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2022 F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Driver ratings

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (Started: 16th, Finished: 10th)

Rating: 7

Lewis Hamilton had a rather horrendous weekend. It started with a poor setup call that forced his elimination in Q1. Then in the race, it was the rather delayed pitstop that cost him a handful of points in the end.

In between messing up the strategies, Hamilton was driving the car like a seven-time world champion should. He drove his way through the field and was behind his teammate at the time. A rather worrisome Saudi Arabian GP for the Mercedes driver.

George Russell (Started: 6th, Finished: 5th)

Rating:8

Russell did what he had to do in the race. The Mercedes was the third fastest car on the grid. Luckily for the Brit, he didn't spend his Saudi Arabian GP tripping over himself and secured what was the best possible result from his car.

Red Bull

Max Verstappen (Started: 4th, Finished: 1st)

Rating:10

After struggling in qualifying, Verstappen turned it around in the race. At the start, he dispatched Carlos Sainz. The safety car dropped Perez out of contention and then, in the end, he finally reeled in Charles Leclerc to win his first race of the season.

Sergio Perez (Started: 1st, Finished: 4th)

Rating: 8

For the second race in a row, Perez will be going home with a rather bitter taste in his mouth. His qualifying lap was a thing of beauty. So was his start as he led the race in a commanding way. However, once the safety car dropped him out of contention, he was never able to make his way back to the front and ended up fourth in the Saudi Arabian GP.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc (Started: 2nd, Finished: 2nd)

Rating: 9

Charles Leclerc is proving to be a driver worthy of that beautiful Ferrari. This weekend, however, was all about missing out because of the finest of margins for the Monegasque. He narrowly got pipped for pole by Perez on Saturday and then on Sunday, he was narrowly pipped for the win by Verstappen. Regardless, the Ferrari driver put together another impressive display at the Saudi Arabian GP.

Carlos Sainz (Started: 3rd, Finished: 3rd)

Rating: 8

Carlos Sainz might be starting to feel the heat at Ferrari. The driver is performing at a very high level in the team. His teammate, however, is performing at an even higher level.

Sainz put together another impressive weekend. He finds himself second in the championship standings, however, just like the first race of the season, a shade behind Leclerc.

McLaren

Lando Norris (Started: 11th, Finish: 7th)

Rating: 8

This was your typical Lando Norris performance. The McLaren driver stretched the maximum possible from the car in qualifying and then did the same in the race. A rather impressive return to form for the team and the driver.

Daniel Ricciardo (Started: 14th, Finish: DNF)

Rating: 6.5

It was a rather unfortunate end to the weekend for Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian seemed destined for a points finish in the Saudi Arabian GP and was even ahead of his teammate when his car stopped working.

It's been a decent return for the Australian, although he's still missing a tenth or two to his teammate.

Alpine

Fernando Alonso (Started: 7th, Finish: DNF)

Rating: 8.5

Fernando Alonso was driving an impressive race in the Saudi Arabian GP before his car stopped responding. The Spaniard had a nice wheel-to-wheel fight with his teammate and looked destined to score a decent haul of points. He will take confidence from this race to Australia and will hope to redeem himself.

Esteban Ocon (Started: 5th, Finished: 6th)

Rating: 8

It was a decent haul of points for Esteban Ocon with another solid qualifying performance for him on Saturday. During the Saudi Arabian GP, the Frenchman had a great battle with his teammate and would not have been happy that he lost out. Regardless, Ocon kept his nose clean after that and brought the car home while others around him struggled.

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly (Started: 9th, Finished: 8th)

Rating: 7

Another solid weekend for Gasly, the French driver extracted whatever he could from the car and qualified in P9. During the race, the French driver suffered from intestinal pain and drove through it to finish an admirable 8th in the race.

Yuki Tsunoda (Started: 20th, Finished: DNS)

Rating: N/A

Zero laps in qualifying for poor Yuki Tsunoda were followed by zero laps in the race for the young Japanese Driver. This was not the kind of weekend Tsunoda would have been expecting in Jeddah.

Aston Martin

Nico Hulkenberg(Started: 17th, Finished: 12th)

Rating: 7

Nico Hulkenberg has done an admirable job in the last two races. The German driver raced in Bahrain without any prior testing on the car. He then raced on the fastest street circuit on the calendar without proper race fitness. Despite this, he was within striking distance of his teammate before the first safety car and finished 12th in the race.

Lance Stroll (Started: 13th, Finished: 13th)

Rating: 6

It does not reflect well on you if the stand-in driver that lacks race fitness and the proper time in a race car can match you during a weekend. Lance Stroll had put together a decent race but was falling down the order when the late dive by Alex Albon dropped him behind his teammate.

Alfa Romeo

Valtteri Bottas (Started: 8th, Finished: DNF)

Rating: 7

Bottas will be disappointed for not finishing the race, however, he will not be disappointed by his drive. The Finnish driver once again took his car to Q3 and was having a very good race in a points-paying position before disaster struck and he had to retire the car.

Guanyu Zhou (Started: 12th, Finished: 11th)

Rating: 6

Zhou is somewhat enjoying life in F1 driving a strong midfield car. It was more of the same as what he did in Bahrain. He has a clear gulf compared to Bottas in terms of performance in the Saudi Arabian GP and will be looking to close the gap in the upcoming races.

Haas

Kevin Magnussen (Started: 10th, Finished: 9th)

Rating: 8

Another decent outing for Kevin Magnussen. The Haas was not the class of the field this time around as Alpine and Alfa Romeo had better pace. The Danish driver did the best that he could and tried to make the most of the rather sub-optimal strategy of not pitting during the safety car.

Mick Schumacher (Started: DNS)

Rating: 5

Mick Schumacher's Saudi Arabian GP weekend ended with a crash in qualifying that left his car in tatters. Before that, he was matching his teammate and it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with the Haas this weekend.

Williams

Alex Albon (Started: 16th, Finished: 14th)

Rating: 5.5

Alex Albon not only replaced George Russell, but also took up his role in Williams. He's much faster than Nicholas Latifi at the moment and extracts a lot more from the car than his teammate.

Sadly, Williams has produced sub-standard machinery yet again and all of this amounts to no points for the young driver. The clumsy crash with Stroll also added to his woes.

Nicholas Latifi (Started: 18th, Finished: DNF)

Rating: 3

With Nikita Mazepin out of the picture, Latifi is getting more and more exposed to the F1 fans. It was a poor showing at the Saudi Arabian GP for the Canadian as he crashed out of the race with an innocuous error at the last corner of the lap.