End of F1 season rankings

Drivers

1: Max - dominated the season without having a dominant car, very impressive indeed. Barely put a wheel out of place in the entire season. Having had the privilege of following the entirety of Michael Schumacher's career, I never thought we'd see another driver of his caliber again but Max is the first driver that might possibly be close to that level.

2: Norris - in the competitive midfield he continues to outclass everyone, and reasonably comfortably beat both Alpines over the season in what looked to be a much slower car at most circuits. It's a shame he's tied to a long term contract as he'd be a huge asset to any of the top teams and it's hard to see McLaren breaking into their stranglehold any time soon.

3: Vettel - he showed what a champion he is and you'd have to think if he was in one of the top three teams Max might have had more of a fight on his hands. It can't be overstated how bad the the Aston was. When Vettel had covid and Hulkenberg stood in for him, Nico finished dead last in one race and the only other team he finished ahead of in his second race was one of the Williams. When Nyck De Vries drove both the Williams and Aston in the same weekend he said the Williams was the faster package. When most teams brought young drivers to Abu Dhabi practice, it was the Formula 2 champion in the Aston and he finished the session dead last, a long way behind many young drivers he'd just beaten over the year in F2. Yet in the hands of Vettel, the car was a regular points scorer and he consistently dragged it way beyond where it belonged and ahead of many other drivers in many faster cars in the championship. And that's even with the team always favouring Stroll on strategy, a leg up that still couldn't get him even within 50% of Vettel's points in the championship.

4: Leclerc - extremely fast over one lap or one stint, maybe the fastest out there on his day. He suffered repeatedly at the hands of bad calls from the team, but he isn't entirely without blame as he rarely had the self belief or awareness to push back against bad decisions in the way Sainz often did. He made a couple of mistakes out there too. In the right car he will be a champion one day, but he probably won't quite wring the neck of a car and maximise every single point the way Verstappen did or other greats of the past have.

5: Alonso - without countless reliability issues he would have been well ahead of his teammate, who also performed very well. He's not entirely the same driver he was 5 or 10 years ago, understandably, but he still has a racing brain like nobody else, always thinking of ways to find an advantage, like his tendency to find unusual lines and lay down rubber ahead of the race to prepare them, or always finding ways to pick his way through difficult situations to make the most of them. I'd say it was flashes of brilliance every few races rather than the consistent high level he used to achieve, but when he performs he really performs.

6: Perez - not on the pace of Max but I'm not sure anyone would be. He's still closer than any other teammate Verstappen has had since he matured from his early teenage days. Checo's position was probably more of a true reflection of where the Red Bull stood relative to the Ferrari and Mercedes. He was consistent and rarely made mistakes, and always performed well in wheel to wheel battles.

Constructors

1: Red Bull - impressive to produce such a solid car after so much of their focus was on the title battle last year, and after losing so much of their development budget to car damage inflicted upon them at Hungary and Silverstone. In reality it's hard to judge who really had the best car. Red Bull never locked out the front row in the entire season until Abu Dhabi, Ferrari probably looked fastest in about half the races, Mercedes in 2 or 3, but Red Bull had the metronomic consistency to always be up there in any conditions, and a combination of Max behind the wheel and the best strategists and pit crew in the paddock always helped them maximise the results.

2: Ferrari - while they made many well documented mistakes, and they did fall away towards the end of the year, you can't forget that they turned up with a blisteringly fast car at the start of the year (which also happened to be the most beautiful looking F1 car in a couple of decades) and earned themselves P2 in the championship

3: Mercedes - it was the first time under Toto Wolff that the team have had to actually produce an all new car rather than an evolution of a dominant one from the year before, and they really made a mess of it. While it wasn't a bad car by any means and was comfortably ahead of the rest of the field other than Ferrari and Red Bull, it was a long way off what they're used to. With a bit of acting from their drivers claiming bad backs and a bit of pressure from Toto's insider at the FIA, they got the rules changed mid season which didn't do much to slow down Red Bull but was certainly a turning point in the battle for P2 with Ferrari, and they did a good job from there reeling them in and they probably even had the best overall car from their final update package at Austin.

4: McLaren - although they were pipped to P4 by Alpine, they deserve credit for even being in that fight when the sport is so heavily weighted in favour of constructors. They also have done a great job getting sponsors, pulling themselves out of financial problems they were in a couple of years ago, and securing a great driver pairing for the future. So they've put themselves in a good position, albeit one that I doubt will ever really bear fruit without a works engine partner. I hope they're talking to the likes of Porsche.

5: Alpine - they had some speed, but dreadful reliability. Feels like they're at least finally moving in the right direction. F1 shouldn't have a "big 3", it should have a big 4 and Alpine should be there, there really is no excuse for them to be the only full factory not in the mix for podiums. But they're doing better than the last few years and without the work of Norris they'd be pretty comfortably clear of midfield, so that is something at least.

6: Alfa Romeo - they quietly produced an excellent car. Some weird quirks like repeated issues getting off the line at race starts cost them, but they fairly comfortably had the next best car after the big three and Alpine. With some decent drivers they could have been in the fight with McLaren and Alpine for 4th in the championship, rather than battling Aston Martin for 6th.

Worst drivers

1: Latifi - needs no explanation

2: Zhou - has done absolutely nothing to justify having a seat in F1

3: Ricciardo - two seasons in a row now he's been absolutely miles away from what his car is capable of in 90% of races. You can put it down to driving style or whatever but he's had two entirely different cars under entirely different aero regulations and his performances have remained poor

4: Binotto - I've decided there's only really 3 drivers who stood out for poor performances so I'm widening the net. Ferrari haven't lived up to where they should be and have been in a downward spiral since he took over. The new regulations were there for the taking and the engineers came up with a great car, but they've only gone backwards again since the start of the year. Ferrari is a great team with dreadful leadership right now

5: Steiner - horrific mismanagement of Mick, who was the most promising young talent on the grid in that less experienced group with Zhou and Tsunoda. If you look at the stats Schumacher actually finished ahead of Magnussen more often than not, in addition to trashing his teammate last year and winning Formula 2 the year before that. But he's been mistreated by the team consistently and they seemed to be pushing for him to fail. Steiner has always been an amusing figure on Netflix but he's also always come across as a completely toxic manager to actually work for too - no other team boss so consistently and so openly criticises their own drivers, not just now but previously with Grosjean too

6: Szafnauer - I had a lot of respect for him in his Force India days but he hasn't showered himself in glory lately. He oversaw Aston Martin's development of the worst car on the grid, despite having the budget and facilities to have been fighting with the likes of Alpine. He then jumped to Alpine and made a mess of the Piastri situation (which maybe wasn't his fault in fairness but his predecessors), oversaw repeated strategic blunders and continual poor reliability, and allowed a somewhat toxic atmosphere to develop between his two drivers too

. Verstappen He Won the WDC and the WEC for Red Bull almost by himself. Enough said.

2. Charles Leclerc.

He started of great this season but then Ferrari let him down and he made some mistakes too. Sine good could do better.

3. Sergio Perez He has shown he is a good solid number two driver but there is times when he could have done more but just did not seem to have the drive go do it.

4. George Russell. Has proven he has what it takes to be at the top and has beaten a 7 time WDC champion in a not so great car.

5.Kevin Magnessun

Came into Haas after being a year out in no seagt thrown straight into the deep end and has out drove that midfield car.

6. Lando Norris.

He got Mclaren all the way to 5th in the constructors nearly just by himself. Ricciardo as much as I like him might as well not have been there.

Constructors

1. Red Bull They won the WDC and the WCC. Enough said.

2. Mercedes.

They came from having possibly the worst car on the grid to being back fighting at the front in a season

That is some going.

3. Ferrari

They went from Fighting at the front to making a balls of everything and nearly ending up fighting in the midfield. If any team could do it sure its Ferrari. Who knows maybe next year they will go even more backwards and will be fighting Williams or whoever are at the back of the grid next year lol.

4. Haas. For me I think they done really well. They started off solid and stayed fairly good throughout the season even getting a podium with Magnussem. Next year should be even better for them.

5. Mclaren

They got 5th in the Championship nearly 4th with basically only 1 driver scoring for most of the season. Next year should be better for them if both drivers are regularly in the points.

.6 Alpine they did OK. They got 4th just about but only because Mclaren only had one driver scoring. If only they could sort out there reliability they would be right. They need to sort there reliability if they want to manage the same or do better next year.

Worst drivers.

.1 Nicholas latifi Buy buy waves hand lol

.2 Mick Schumacher Needs to do better.

.3 Lance stroll A pay driver.

.4 Yuki Tsunoda Did not have a good season.

.5 Zhou Guanyu just not great.

.6 Daniel Ricciardo

I think he was just was not in the right frame of mind this year.