Top 3 F1 drivers who have not lived up to expectations

Every F1 driver sets a pre-season target for himself before the racing begins. More often than not, that target could be anything from championship position in the standings to number of points/wins/podiums. There is, however, another expectation that a driver is subjected to. That expectation is from the fans and the pundits.

Heading into an F1 season, it is more or less known how a driver or a team is going to fare going into the season. It thus comes as a surprise when something different happens. This season, there have been a few drivers who have been unable to put together performances that one expects from them.

The level that they would have expected or would have been expected from them has not been reached. Who are they? Let's take a look.

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#1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes F1)

If we look at the points standings, Lewis Hamilton is currently ahead of teammate George Russell. In fairness, the driver has had a few bright moments as well. He's won a couple of races this season as well. With that being said, once we break it down in terms of head-to-head between teammates, it's been a one-way street, and it's not in favor of Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver has been unable to get the better of his teammate in qualifying. In fairness, if it were not for Russell having two high-profile DNFs in both races where Hamilton won and Mercedes was very strong, the gap would have been much different.

A driver who will go down in history as one of the best has not had the best run this season, and he would be the first to acknowledge that this has been the case.

#2 Daniel Ricciardo (RB)

Daniel Ricciardo's return to F1 was not supposed to go this way. The Australian was supposed to use the 2024 season to finally show Red Bull that he could be a viable replacement for Sergio Perez. As it turns out, the season has not gone the way Ricciardo would have hoped.

The driver is as a result benched by Red Bull for the near future and replaced by Liam Lawson at RB. Who knows what the future will hold for Ricciardo but one thing is clear, the F1 driver would be disappointed with the kind of season he put together.

#3 Kevin Magnussen (Haas F1)

Kevin Magnussen's future was already under the spotlight last season after he had been unable to keep up with teammate Nico Hulkenberg. It wasn't, however, this bad when the driver was just outclassed in the championship standings. One of the reasons behind that was the car as well as Haas just didn't have the race pace for Hulkenberg to convert that strong qualifying into strong results.

This season, the qualifying results have been supplemented with race results for Hulkenberg because the car is good enough to accomplish that. As a result, we find a gaping gulf between Hulkenberg and the Dane. This is arguably the reason why Magnussen won't be on the F1 grid next season.