2024 F1 Imola GP: Driver Ratings

The 2024 F1 Imola GP ended with Max Verstappen winning his 5th race of the season. It was probably not as easy as many other races this season where the Red Bull driver marched forward without much competition.

This was a hard-fought race, with quite a few drivers putting together impressive performances. In this feature, we're not talking about how the race went. Rather, our focus would be on how each of the drivers performed.

The F1 Imola GP can be a very tough race for the drivers, especially considering how the track tends to punish mistakes. So how did all the drivers perform? Let's take a look at our driver ratings.

Criteria

• Performance in both qualifying and race
• Results achieved compared to the potential of the car
• Mistakes made over the weekend
• Relative performance against their teammate

2024 F1 Imola GP: Rating the drivers

Red Bull

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

Rating: 10

If at any point of the weekend, Max Verstappen had not extracted the maximum from the car, he was going to lose. This line should epitomize the kind of performance he put together at the F1 Imola GP. A flawless race weekend worthy of a world champion.

Sergio Perez (Started: 11th, Finished: 8th)

Rating: 5

Sergio Perez had a poor weekend this time around, and it all comes down to qualifying. The most important part of the race weekend in the coming races is going to be qualifying. Sergio might need to make improvements because if the form continues, he's losing his seat to a better driver.

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (Started: 8th, Finished: 6th)

Rating: 7.5

A solid weekend from Lewis. He was probably a tenth or so behind George Russell in terms of performance, but in the end, with his teammate eating up his tires, he got the jump. The driver is starting to find his groove now in the car, and that should be good news for the team.

George Russell (Started: 6th, Finished: 7th)

Rating: 7

A decent weekend for George Russell as well. In the end, he possibly ate up his tires a bit too much, and that cost him a position, but more or less, the two drivers had a decent weekend together.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc (Started: 3rd, Finished: 3rd)

Rating: 9

Charles extracted whatever there was to be extracted from the car in the F1 Imola GP. The Ferrari driver drove brilliantly but maybe lacked that final tenth in both the race and qualifying.

Carlos Sainz (Started: 4th, Finished: 5th)

Rating: 7

Possibly a step behind Charles Leclerc over the F1 Imola GP race weekend is not too bad for Carlos. The Spaniard was a bit disappointed with his weekend and will be looking to secure a better result next time around.

McLaren

Lando Norris (Started: 2nd, Finished: 2nd)

Rating: 9

It was very close for Lando and could have been two wins in two races for him. The McLaren driver drove a brilliant race and had a strong qualifying as well.

Getting bumped down by Oscar (momentarily) would have been a surprise, but the overall ability to nail the tire management in the second stint was just brilliant.

Oscar Piastri (Started: 5th, Finished: 4th)

Rating: 8

An overall strong weekend for Oscar, as he certainly had the pace to do a lot more than he was able to accomplish. A podium could be in the way for the young driver soon.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso (Started: Pitlane, Finished: 19th)

Rating: 3

The worst weekend since Fernando Alonso's comeback saw the Spaniard crashing multiple times. He will be hoping to bounce back strong in the next race.

Lance Stroll (Started: 13th, Finished: 9th)

Rating: 7

Lance Stroll had his best weekend in a long time. Starting the race in P13, the Aston Martin driver made his way through the field and scored points at the F1 Imola GP.

Alpine

Pierre Gasly (Started: 15th, Finished: 16th)

Rating: 7

Pierre Gasly possibly overachieved in qualifying at the F1 Imola GP, as he just couldn't do anything to make any kind of progress in the race. He's driving the wheels off the car, and with an uncertain future, you have to wonder where he could go next.

Esteban Ocon (Started: 12th, Finished: 14th)

Rating: 8

Ocon was maybe a tenth or so behind his teammate as both tried to extract whatever they could from the car they had under them. It's 6-1 in favor of Ocon now after the F1 Imola GP as Gasly continues to get outperformed.

Williams

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

Rating: 7

The issue in the pits ruined his race, but Alex Albon was nowhere close anyway to scoring points. The F1 Imola GP was another race where Williams was nowhere and Alex was severely limited by the car.

Logan Sargeant (Started: 19th, Finished: 17th)

Rating: 6.5

Logan Sargeant was once again a step behind Alex throughout the weekend, even though the gap wasn't too big. The American did finish the race, but there was hardly any salvaging act as he couldn't fight much with what we had.

V-Ca-RB

Daniel Ricciardo (Started: 9th, Finished: 13th)

Rating: 7

Daniel was a step behind Yuki Tsunoda all weekend, and in the end, while his teammate scored a point, he didn't. He'd like to get ahead of Yuki consistently now, even though momentum appears to be against him at this stage.

Yuki Tsunoda (Started: 7th, Finished: 10th)

Rating: 8

Yuki had a strong weekend if you compare it against his teammate. He possibly would have hoped for more points, but unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Stake F1 Sauber

Valtteri Bottas (Started: 16th, Finished: 18th)

Rating: 6

Another anonymous weekend for Bottas, who is yet to put forward a compelling case for why he should be either kept at Sauber or any other team. Being fractionally better than Zhou is not going to get him far if that is going to be his play for 2025.

Guanyu Zhou (Started: 17th, Finished: 15th)

Rating: 6

Zhou is in a similar boat where he knows he's driving for his future, but the lack of success is starting to hurt. The Sauber itself is not a competitive car but if you can't assert yourself within the team, then it surely doesn't help.

Haas F1

Kevin Magnussen (Started: 18th, Finished: 12th)

Rating: 7

An impressive drive through the field for Kevin Magnussen, who went long on his first stint. A drive through the field to P12 is a good reason for the Danish driver.

Nico Hulkenberg (Started: 10th, Finished: 11th)

Rating: 8

A strong F1 Imola GP weekend for Nico Hulkenberg, where he qualified in the top 10, and ran as high as P8, but since Haas just doesn't have the pace of the top 5 teams, he fell back and, in the end, had to be content with a P11.