Ranking every British F1 driver (ft. Lewis Hamilton) on the 2025 grid

In 2007, when Lewis Hamilton made his F1 debut, he became one of the catalysts for the revival of British excellence in motorsports. The last British driver to win the title was Damon Hill in 1996, and the sport went through a somewhat lean phase when it came to representation on the grid.

Jenson Button made his debut in the early 2000s, but he wasn't able to get his hands on a car that would be fast enough for him to shine. Hamilton, however, jumped straight into a McLaren and fought for the title on the first go.

What he did was also inspire the next generation of talent who looked up to him when they made their way to the sport. As a result, on the 2025 F1 grid, there would be as many as four British drivers, with Ollie Bearman taking part in his first full season.

With that being said, in terms of driving ability and performance, in their current shape, how do we rank the four British drivers? Let's take a look.

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#4 Ollie Bearman

Well, for now, Ollie Bearman has to be content with being the fourth-best British driver on the grid. The young driver will be competing in his first full season this year with Haas and has had an impressive run whenever he's got a chance.

With Ferrari backing his career, Ollie is expected to spend a couple of years at Haas, where he will put together an impressive run and then eventually replace Lewis Hamilton on the Italian team.

For now, though, the youngster finds himself fourth in the list of the best British drivers on the grid.

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#3 Lewis Hamilton

This might be somewhat controversial, but looking at current momentum, Lewis Hamilton is the third-best British driver on the F1 grid. The seven-time world champion has had a torrid run in 2024, which saw him get outperformed by teammate George Russell.

The fact that this was his last year with Mercedes probably played a role, or whether it was just George being better is a question we'd get an answer to as well. For now, though, the drivers who looked up to him when they were making their way through their junior careers find themselves on a higher footing when it comes to performance, consistency, and recent performance.

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#2 George Russell

At No. 2, we have George Russell. It is astounding that a driver could join a team that houses a seven-time F1 champion in Lewis Hamilton, beat him twice over three years, and still not get the kind of credit that he should. Russell has grown by leaps and bounds in the last three years at Mercedes.

While the first season was focused on consistency more than anything, 2023 was a bigger learning curve where the driver tried to make too big a splash in the car. The 2024 F1 season was probably the most convincing season for a driver who definitively got the better of Lewis in the same car.

George is now one of the elite talents in F1, but he's just a smidge behind his former F2 rival when it comes to cutting down on the errors and consistency.

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#1 Lando Norris

Lando Norris finished the 2024 F1 season second in the championship. Ideally, he should have won, but the inability to nail his first lap is what cost the British driver. The season also saw the driver's shortcomings exposed with the microscope, but there's another reality to it as well, where the driver's overall race performance was quite brilliant.

There aren't many race weekends you can point to when it comes to Lando and say that he got outpaced by his teammate Oscar Piastri over a weekend. He is still not the perfect product for now, but he's someone who has shown that he's getting very close to the perfect, that is, Max Verstappen in F1. For now, though, he's still the best British driver on the 2025 F1 grid, and it would be interesting to see how he tackles what could potentially be his second shot at the title.