Welcome to the sixth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Monaco Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.
Watching the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is always an entertaining affair and this year’s edition, after a year away, did not disappoint. There were crashes all weekend, multiple red flags and some great action throughout. We were also treated to the first ever Formula 1 sprint race, caused by the red flag brought out by Max Verstappen’s crash with six laps to go, which gave us a glimpse into what we can expect from this format when it becomes part of the F1 weekend later in the year. Pirelli’s tyres were once again topping the headlines with two high profile crashes caused by tyre failure on the main straight which cost Verstappen a certain victory and Red Bull their first 1-2 since 2013. Their fortunes changed from opening up a nice gap in both championships to their rivals, to losing ground, back to gaining ground, all in three laps of racing. This just shows the closeness of the championship this year. There was also some great action as usual behind the main battle with another driver of the day performance from Sebastian Vettel.
After Azerbaijan Grand Prix (6 of 23)
1. Max Verstappen (-+)
There wasn’t anything Max could have done about that tyre failure with six laps to go that put an end to his race. He had driven well in the race to overcut the Mercedes of Hamilton in the pits to take the lead once they had both dispatched polesitter Leclerc early on. The Red Bull did look the quickest car around the streets of Baku all weekend so this will feel like a big missed opportunity that was taken away through no fault of their own. He was also denied the opportunity of pole due to more Q3 crashes bringing out the red flag but it is good to see that other cars can get up there and disrupt the Red Bull-Mercedes fight to cause these exciting fights. While he will be frustrated at losing out on the win, Max can’t dwell as his main championship rival didn’t score either so the fight is rolled over to France.
2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)
It would have been an all-time Hamilton turnaround, from being nowhere in practice to sticking it on the front row and then being in a prime position to win the race (however momentarily) with two laps to go. Seeing how tricky his teammate found it all weekend shows that Hamilton’s talent for driving F1 cars was the distinguishing factor in hauling the Mercedes up front in Baku. He got a better start than Perez at the Lap 49 standing restart and had the inside line to take the lead but inadvertently knocked the ‘magic’ brake bias switch as he swerved to avoid the Red Bull, which caused his front brakes to lock and him to go straight on at the first corner, dropping right to the back of the field. I agree with Toto Wolff in his assessment that it was not a mistake, just a freak accident as Hamilton hasn’t realised he had nudged the switch before braking. This does not take away from the fact, however, that this was also a chance missed to re-gain the championship lead and build confidence over Red Bull once again. It did feel like the F1 gods were levelling the playing field after Max had his points taken so cruelly. All is fair in love and war.
3. Sergio Perez (+4)
I may be being overly generous here but this could prove to be such an important win for Sergio Perez. He had been under pressure to join the title fight recently with his pace not quite living up to Max’s standards. However, Perez predicted it himself when he said it would take five races to get up to speed and then he goes and wins the sixth. This is exactly why Red Bull hired him – to pick up the pieces if something were to go wrong with Max’s car and to take points off Mercedes. Perez showed his intentions early on Sunday with a great start and some decisive overtaking to get himself up to third from sixth on the grid by Lap 7. Such was his race pace, he could have overcut both his teammate and Lewis Hamilton in the pitstops if it wasn’t for a slow stop, but he slotted in behind Verstappen for a Red Bull 1-2. Once Max retired, Perez brought it home to take his second career victory and becomes the first driver to win with two constructors in the turbo hybrid era. He now needs to do this type of performance every week, which is what it takes to hold on to one of these top drives.
4. Charles Leclerc (-+)
Another crash effected qualifying that Charles Leclerc ends up on top of. It wasn’t his crash this time, however, and despite the fact that his time would have probably been beaten by at least one Red Bull in Baku, Charles keeps sticking his Ferrari where it isn’t welcome. The pace was not in the car to really fight for the win and he did slowly fall back throughout the race with some assistance from the safety car to help the ‘over cutters’ e.g. Vettel, to leapfrog him. He just missed out on a podium after a great battle with Pierre Gasly at the second restart due to some nice defending from the Frenchman. Charles is gaining ground on Lando Norris’ fourth place in the championship.
5. Pierre Gasly (+1)
It feels no coincidence that when a Grand Prix descends into chaos recently, Pierre Gasly has been there to pick up the spoils. The third podium of his career was a great way to complete the hattrick. The impressiveness of this one was that he was sniffing around the podium positions all weekend. He started fourth on the grid to continue a phenomenal run of Q3 appearances in this Alpha Tauri and ran in the hunt for best of the rest behind the two Red Bulls and Hamilton until two of the main protagonists fell by the wayside. This elevated him into a podium position which he fought and held on to with all his powers. His long braking into the corners meant Leclerc could not attempt to force his way around the outside in the right angular first sector. A really well-deserved podium for Gasly, who keeps showing Red Bull what their future could be if they would just take it.
6. Lando Norris (-3)
Norris was caught out by the red flag at the end of Q3 so wasn’t able to set his fastest time but the McLaren did feel a step off this weekend in Baku despite the monstrous back straight seemingly suiting this car. He benefitted from the retirements ahead and finally got past Tsunoda to get onto the back of the podium fight during the two lap sprint race at the end. He wasn’t able to get amongst it but he once again moved forward in the race to collect valuable points for McLaren while his teammate is not delivering them consistently. Seems harsh to put him down three spots but the guys who jumped ahead had standout weekends.
7. Carlos Sainz (-2)
It was looking promising for Sainz, lining up fifth on the grid but he lost places at the start and a costly mistake put him down the field. He went straight on at the castle section after locking up on cold hard compound tyres, a mistake that cost him over twenty seconds. He was far behind the points until the safety cars gave him a second chance. He was able to get back up to eighth and four championship points to take home so it wasn’t all a lost cause.
8. Sebastian Vettel (+3)
Seb continues his meteoric rise up this list with his first of the season and Aston Martin’s first ever podium. It looks like Vettel is getting on top of this car and two great performances at tricky street circuits will give him such confidence. The happy, jokey, smiley Sebastian Vettel is back, and for a person who used to actively root against him, it is actually really good to see. He performed a very effective overcut which got him up to sixth at the restart after his teammate crashed on Lap 31 which turned into fifth when he stuck it down the inside of Leclerc into Turn 1. Fifth became fourth before they crossed the line again as his newer harder tyres gave him the grip advantage. Finally, fourth became second with two laps to go and Seb saw the job home to complete a throwback drive for this F1 great.
9. Esteban Ocon (-+)
I am going to leave Esteban here for this week despite a non-finish in the race and being beaten by his teammate in qualifying. A brake issue put pay to his Sunday early in Baku which ended his fine run of results. However, Alpine have been so impressed that they have signed him to a three year contract extension until the end of 2024. This is Ocon’s longest contract of his career and a sign from Alpine that they feel Ocon is their future. Next up for the French driver and team – the French Grand Prix so it should be all smiles and rainbows this weekend.
10. Lance Stroll (-2)
An unfortunate weekend for Stroll. He binned it in Q1 to line up nineteenth on the grid but was making good progress on his alternate strategy of long first stint on the hard tyres. However, a tyre blow out on Lap 31 ended his race and changed the state of play for everyone else. This was no fault of his own so its hard to drop him further than this. His teammate picked up the pieces, but Lance has been strong enough this season that this should not affect him too much. A podium for his teammate may even motivate him even more.
11. Fernando Alonso (+3)
This move in ranking reflects Alonso’s best weekend since his return to F1. He consistently outperformed Ocon all weekend and found himself eighth on the grid. He kept out of trouble in the race to come home sixth, just behind the fight for the podium spots. He hasn’t been the most consistent version of himself this year, hence why he has jumped up and down this list but I think this smooth weekend should give him confidence to get back to his old ways.
12. Daniel Ricciardo (-2)
Another weekend when Daniel missed out on Q3 which he has missed more often than not this season. While he did salvage some points on Sunday, finished ninth, he still is not up to speed with the pack as he was last of the midfield runners in Baku. This is slightly following the trend of his Renault days where he did eventually get it together and look really strong, so fingers crossed its another case of this and there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with this package.
13. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)
A weekend where Alfa Romeo quietly got on with their business, stayed out of trouble and picked up a point from their experienced Finn. His teammate did finish just behind but it was Kimi who took the point. He capitalised on incidents and retirements in front to move up the field but that is what Alfa need to do to keep their championship tally ticking over.
14. George Russell (-2)
George was able to do his Saturday magic and get into Q2 once again but that would be the height of his weekend as the Williams looked off the pace and he retired with a lap to go. He keeps beating his teammate and with Bottas struggling, George needs to keep the pressure up to get that Mercedes seat.
15. Yuki Tsunoda (+3)
This may be a slight exaggeration or just a reflection of how low Tsunoda was on this list that he gets a 3-place lift after his Baku weekend. This was Tsunoda’s best weekend overall by far, despite crashing in Q3, but the fact that he was in Q3 probably outweighs that. He moved to Italy before the Baku race to be closer to the factory and engineers after a poor start to the season and it looks to have paid off. He looked much more consistently quick in Baku and this was rewarded with a seventh-place finish and his best result in F1 so far. He now needs to kick on and do this regularly to match his more experienced teammate.
16. Valtteri Bottas (-1)
Valtteri can’t afford to have too many weekends like Baku. Neither Mercedes looked quick before qualifying, but his teammate was able to pull a setup out the bag and stick it on the front row, while Bottas could only manage tenth. He complained of tyre warm up issues all weekend, but the great drivers find a way to fix it, like his teammate. It went from bad to worse on Sunday as Bottas barely threatened the top positions and only beat the two Haas’s and his teammate after his late race error. Sometimes Bottas makes this Mercedes look average or is his teammate just that good?
17. Antonio Giovinazzi (-1)
It was a good recovery weekend for Antonio after he crashed out in Q1 in Azerbaijan. He lined up last but was able to rise to eleventh by the flag on Sunday. He was up to fifteenth by the end of Lap 1 but had to pit early because of a tyre issue. He had good pace to get ahead of his teammate by the time Stroll brought out the red flag on Lap 31. He lost out once more during the tyre changes and would follow his teammate home and just miss out on points. He was punished for a small mistake on qualifying but the race pace is seemingly much improved for the young Italian.
18. Mick Schumacher (-1)
Mick helped Haas move ahead of Williams in the Constructor’s Championship on Sunday with a thirteenth-place finish, their highest finish of the season. He was comfortably ahead of his teammate during the race until the various safety car and red flag periods closed the gap and even got Mazipin ahead with two laps to go. Schumacher was able to jump him on the very last lap but Mazipin’s late move to defend caused a rather angry radio message from Mick. It sounds like there could be tension building between these two as they are their closest rivals on track.
19. Nicolas Latifi (-+)
Latifi was able to closely follow his teammate in Baku and took the finishing honours as Russell retired towards the end. Won by default but he will take it. Not much else to say, he is pretty irrelevant at the moment and his lack of screen time during the weekend shows it. It can be tough at the back of the F1 grid.
20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)
Mazipin is still yet to beat his teammate in a fair fight this season and was once again over forty seconds back when the first safety car came out on Lap 31, that is poor. He then nearly caused an almighty shunt on the final lap as he jinked to the right as Mick was passing him, which screamed immaturity as there was no way he could have kept the German behind with the speed differential. That would have been further bad press for the Russian, which he does not need.
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