P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our 2024 F1 Driver Ratings: P24–P13

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

It’s time for the definitive recap of every F1 driver’s 2024 season, as we reveal our average driver ratings grades from across the whole season. No recency bias, some Logiebear nostalgia, X, - join us as we kick off with our P24 to P13. Our End of Season live tour continues this week! There are still some tickets available for our shows in Birmingham and Manchester, so get them right here!Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to bonus episodes, our classic race podcast series, every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. We are winding down now. But we've got a beefy one for you today. An absolute chocker block all the way through. All 24 Formula One drivers and their average grade across the entire season. No recency bias, Tommy. We're not going with the last five races. This is all of them.

Indeed, yeah, we do the average grade across the whole season, which I personally think is the best way to do it, because you do see a lot of recency bias through the end of season and how it drives rated, because let's be honest, this season has changed so much that looking back to some of the earlier races and things that have happened just makes me think, oh my word, that feels about four years ago now. It really does. I can't wait to get into just. just where the drivers stack up over the course of an entire season of driver ratings, which every single person that listens and watches agrees with. Now, before we dive into all of that, we have a five-star review.

If you want to be read out on this podcast, please leave us a five-star review. Let's know why, because it really helps us. So this one comes in from It's Ahmed. I can't believe I've only just found this podcast at the end of the season. But after attending the Qatar GP for my first GP and then finding this podcast to listen to on my whole journey home, I'm in love. You guys are hilarious and provide balanced appearance. for what goes on in the world of F1.

Just got my P1 live tickets. Hope to see you in Manchester and I'm going to do my best to learn more about F1 as I'm still new to the sport. See you guys soon. I love how Ahmed has literally found us at the end of this season and bought P1 live show tickets.

That is... Respect. That is phenomenal work from Ahmed. Yeah, thank you so much indeed. Right, let's get into our season driver ratings and begin with my P24, Logan Sargent, with a 3.9 average grade.

So Logie Bear obviously lost his seat, so are we surprised to have him all the way down there in my grades? Probably not. His best score was a 7 out of 10 from me at Silverstone, where he finished P11. And that was where he was holding a really strong sort of P, what was it, 22 at the time, maybe 20? I can't remember exactly what he was holding on to there in the championship. but alas, the worst score I gave him was in Canada

where he crashed twice and I gave him a one. So overall, look, you just look at the numbers. There's not a lot. I mean, I'm looking now. One, two, three, four, four times I gave Sergeant of five or above. So a 3.9 average is not surprising. So my P-24 is also a leg and sergeant with an average of four. of 4.0.

No way, Tommy, that's so wild. I know, crazy. It's actually, it's like putting on a warm jumper, actually, to do drive ratings and have Logan Sargent start the show again. It feels, it's a bit nostalgic, actually. But yeah, no surprise that my best score was also at the British Grand Prix, because it's the only good race he had the whole season,

and was it even good? Because he, I think, you know, who still... Yeah, exactly, you still behind Albon. So, But yeah, it was a better performance from him almost helped him beat Bottas than the championship. But his season was just woeful right from the start. We thought, you know, James Fowles backed him at the end of last year.

And he went into the new season and was still very, very poor, crashing a lot, a lot of bad grades. You know, my worst ones were not just Canada like you, but Japan as well, where he also had multiple crashes during the same weekend. So not good for Logie Bear and no surprise he's last. No surprise indeed. Let's go to P23 Tommy. P23 is Sergio Perez and yes, 4.5 average grade is almost like, you're kind of like wow, but then is it actually going to be a surprise to people because his season was so, so poor, of course. No surprise, his best scores were early in the season in Saudi and Japan.

but then from me he actually got two zeros Canada where he had a Q1 exit was slow and crashed in the race and then Mexico which you know was such a disappointing weekend you'd have that in his home Grand Prix where it couldn't have gone any worse really and Perez had so many bad performances so even worse than than last year you know you look at you look back at his grades and at the start 8, 9, 5, 977, but then even earlier it drops off than it did last year and, you know, he's barely getting over a four for the rest of the season. Absolutely shocking from Paris. Shocken indeed. And I also agreed with you, Tommy, because my P23 is also Sergio Perez with the same score as you, a 4.5 average. I also threw a nine in for Azerbaijan. I felt as though, of course,

who was on for a podium, potentially even a P2, until that crash, which was just unlucky, in my opinion, between Sines and Perez. It was a bizarre one and ended both of their races. But apart from that, Canada and Mexico, as we've mentioned, I gave him a zero. And in the first sort of four races, he had an eight, a nine, a five, a nine,

and then even two sevens. And then from then on, the next one, two, three, four, five, six races after that, I didn't give him higher than a three. He then got a six in Hungary. Good job. Then a four, then a seven, then a six. A nine obviously in Azerbaijan.

And then ended the season with a 4403-4-15. Sounds like a phone number. But yeah, that was no surprise that Perez was down in P23. He's in the spotlight as well, which I don't think helps when it comes to driver ratings. I'm sure the likes of Lance Stroll have had some serious stinkers that have gone under the radar. But like Perez, he's in the championship winning,

driver's championship winning car. So I think that also doesn't help. But he's had a shocking season. And we still have no news as to who is replacing him, if anybody. So yeah, P23 Perez. Let's go to P22 now. And I spoke about him. It is Lance Strong with a 4.6 average grade.

His best score from me was literally the first race of the season in Bahrain. But also I gave an eight, I think, as well, in Canada and also Silverstone. he beat Alonzo in Silverstone and he was just behind Fernando in Bahrain and Canada which is deemed a decent performance for Lance and then of course

I would have given him lower than zero if possible for Brazil but that was driving into a gravel off his own accord and just overall he's had a very poor season

his stroll it's I felt like maybe you know there's this redemption arc when of course you you rewind to last year and Stroll, he hurt his wrist and you're like,

okay, he's going to bounce back. And everyone was like, oh my God, Lance, wow, look at all the effort you've put in. Maybe he's got, and then he drove all right, apart of nearly destroying Fernando. But anyway, after that, you think, okay, maybe he's going to, no.

So he showed his love for the sport for that one moment, but then I don't feel like I've really felt it this year. Certainly not. Yeah, P-22 for me is also Lance Strull with a score of 4.6. Best score was his, driving Canada in his home race and Silverstone where he beat Alonzo where I gave him an eight and no surprise of course same as you his worst score was him driving into the gravel on his own

at the Brazilian Grand Prix with a zero and yeah we've just not seen anything from him when Alonzo still had a good season and maybe it's just the fact that the Aston Martin has fallen off and it's not been there but Lance just hasn't been been anywhere near Fernando's kind of consistency and, you know, the highest grades he always seems to get in drive ratings as if by some miracle, maybe like three races a season, he's actually anywhere near Alonzo. And as we've shared many stats about Sergio Perez, I saw a slightly bonkers one about stroll, and I don't know who it says more about Alonzo or Stroll.

but if Fernando Alonzo had basically packed up and gone home after four races into the season they would have scored the same number of points Stroll and Alonzo he could have taken 20 races off yeah that says more about Lance Strull I would say okay let's go to P21 then P21 and it's sad to maybe be talking about him

for the last time and giving his grade he showed Guan Yu with a 4.9 out of 10 no surprise his best score was the epic driving Qatar, which he gave him a 10 for, bagged Salba's only points of the year, were score. Two out of ten in Netherlands, where he went off. But you look at his grades during the season and he was just constantly qualifying, wasn't he, in 20th place for so much of the season and then not really doing much in the race. And I think it was, you know, we were getting

frustrated with the scores of just being like, when is this guy actually going to show up? up and then Vegas and Katah got an 8 and a 10 from me, which very much is like, why now? Why now when you've been fired? But, you know, not a great season from Joe still. My P-21 is also Joe Guan Yu. I gave him a 5.1 average grade, and that feels good, you know? You went just under five, which is savage, especially after being given a 10 in Qatar, still didn't manage to get that straight down the middle with you, but just eeked over with me. A nine, a ten, and a six for the last three races of the season for Joe. He had three sevens from me across the season, a nine in Bahrain at the beginning of the year,

and the rest was just very poor. Sorry to jump ahead with a spoiler, but that looking at something that's actually quite funny is the last three races then. That is the same as what you gave Max Verstappen. Oh yeah? Which is quite crazy. Wow. So what you're saying is show actually in the last three races.

But anyway, thank you, Joe, for being an integral part of this driver ratings. As we now head to P20. And my P20 is Valtari Bottas with a 5.5 average grade. The best score that I gave him was in China. where he was running in the points, then DNF, I gave him a nine for that. And the worst score, sadly, I mean, that's mad to think

that the worst score I gave him the entire year was when he put it into Q3 in Abu Dhabi. Like, the possibilities were endless after Saturday and Bottas just had an absolute stinker to end the season. Otherwise, maybe he might have finished a little bit higher in this average grading. But alas, Botas has been sort of hamstrung,

by the car in a lot of ways it's been a stinker of a car for most of the year it's improved towards the end and we got to see a few glimmers of oh okay all right I see you Botas and then even Joe obviously scoring points but overall it's very hard to notice them

when they're usually at the back so not surprised to see Bottas in P20 so P20 I have gone for Valtry Bottas as well with a score of 5.4 and I promise that at some point our grades do differ. Well, our grades have differed, but in terms of actual drivers and where they are here,

you know, in this list. Best goal was China where, you know, when that sound ball was truly woeful, he was running in the points before a very unlucky DNF and then, you know, he might have reached the dizzying heights of maybe P20 in the championship or something like that.

and his worst grade, Abu Dhabi, what a horrible end to maybe Bottas' career. We'll find out if he decides to return or if there's an opportunity for him again to return, but Abu Dhabi was a really poor race, but Bartas for a lot of the season, it was just, no surprise, a lot of five and sixes where we were going,

how good is that Salba really? It's very, very, very difficult to know. and he was beating Joe for, well, until it mattered and there was points on the table, really. Yeah, absolutely gutting. Let's go to P19. P19, I have gone for Daniel Ricardo. He's got an average grade of 5.6.

And his best score was an 8 in Miami, where he had that amazing sprint, but not such a great race. Canada, Austria, Belgium. West score 2 in Saudi, where he ran at the back, spun on his own and I think that's where it's so early in the season it was oh god, Daniel Ricardo not delivering what we expected

and then yeah, had a really poor season from then on just didn't ever hit those heights again of Miami and I think at the start of the season Sonoda scored a lot more points than him and he was closer to Sonoda but unfortunately for him he was closer to Sonoda as the season and went on, but that's when the RB was basically incapable to score points and things. So it wasn't great reading for him.

And a season to forget, another driver that will we see him in Formula One again? We'll have to find out. Rumored, maybe, we'll see. My P19 is also Daniel Ricardo with a 5.7 average score. It's interesting when you look at the grades that I gave him. And most importantly, I think the start of the year where the hype is real and Ricardo is there, is he going to go to Red Bull? And he had a six, a three, a three and a three

to start the first four race of the season. And almost immediately, like, oh, oh, no, this is not going the way that we all hoped, Daniel Ricardo, as he's a well-loved Formula One driver and you want to see that fairy tale back to Red Bull, but it just didn't back the performances up, sadly, at the start of the year. And he had some great moments.

I think I similarly graded almost all the ones that you mentioned. And then ended before he got kicked out. out with three fives. So it just wasn't enough, sadly, for Daniel Ricardo, as much as we all wanted to see that. And he is all the way down in P19 for both of us. P18. Mine is Esteban Ocon with a 5.9 average score. This surprises me a little bit, but it's worth saying that P18 for me with Ocon, 5.9 average score. My P18. P15 is a 6.0 average score. So it gets very close.

So keep an eye on that as we go through it. But again, I think it's similar to Bottas in the sense that I said, the car has been, or it definitely was at the beginning of the year, especially just so bad that it's hard to really tell exactly how well Ocon was doing. And of course, had a fantastic Brazil, which you can be incredibly proud of. And we thought at one point it was going to win the race. and is he the 18th best driver? I would probably, if I was to like do a ranking,

I would probably have put him higher. But then this is where it takes out of recency bias. And you've got to remember as well, the zeros obviously affect a score quite massively when you're averaging them. Yes, I get zero in Monaco. Of course. Yeah, yeah, because that was on Gassley, wasn't it? And that was unforgivable for mock on.

And yeah, that's a very good point, actually, of dipping his score potentially about three or four places in this average grade. So yeah, P18 for me, for Ocon. P18 for me is Kevin Magnuson with 5.7 and he's another driver where I think with recency bias

people like, oh, Kevin Magnuson's actually had quite a good season and of course at the end he was very impressive and had some really good performances. But at the start of the season we were basically saying that he was embarrassing really and we're kind of saying that

I'm sure in driver ratings we were giving him absolutely appalling grades every single week and it was just getting ridiculous and you know that China he had a fall from me then we went into Miami where he got the zero where he was playing the team game

but being absolutely chaotic and just sacrificing his own race which was quite embarrassing then Monaco another collision and we're kind of thinking surely this guy is going to get a race ban at this point. I mean, Kevin Magnuson's actually looking at his grades. It's the most roller coaster grade.

He gets a good grade, then a bad grade, then a good grade, then a bad grade. It's like 07, 07, 4, 9. He just has a great race and then immediately kind of plummets. But, yeah, Magnuson's season at least ended. hugely like so much better than it than it started. If we were talking about actual endings, Bottas sent him into the shadow realm.

So maybe not the exact ending. His performances. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go to P17 then. So P17 is Liam Lawson with a score of 5.8. Of course, our first driver that has kind of joined mid-season.

so it has a much smaller kind of pool of results, if you like, only six results, which in some cases, as you'll see later on, can help your average massively. But with Liam Lawson, he's still all the way down in 17th for me. His best score was a quota when he returned. I think he did an absolutely fantastic job. but since then he was incredibly underwhelming and yeah the most poor one was the race in Qatar

where I gave him a three and yeah I expected more from Lawson after what a brilliant job he did when he was the kind of super sub from Ricardo previously he had a much better run last year compared to this year but still done a decent job considering the experience on his shoulders

I think, yeah, we are maybe pretty harsh on him at times. I think he's a victim of the success that he had last year. For sure, because he's not even got half a season in Under his belt, I don't think, at the moment. So, yeah, plenty of things to learn for Lawson, for sure. My P-17 is doing with one race. It was 6.0. I want 20 minutes on this. Okay.

Otherwise, every turn. Okay, well we'll start with lap one then Jack Dewan, pretty slow after line, just relaxing, just chilling. Look, this is the beauty of including everyone. We've got to include everyone because we've graded everyone at some points. So just kind of ignore it a little bit if you want to. But doing got a six from me, so he got P17 because he just drove around and didn't crash.

P-16! I have gone for, or I've gone for, the average grades are Kevin Magnuson, with a 6.0 as well. So how it works if there are the same grades for more than one driver, the best rating will put them into the order. So Kevin Magnenson, of course, had a 10 in Mexico and a zero in Monaco. So he really has had some polarizing grades, as you said earlier, Tommy. Yeah, KMAG, I'm looking similarly at mine and sort of from China, 3-17075.

It's funny that, you know, despite all of the chatter around KMA getting a ban, he's driving so, you know, aggressively, dangerously. I don't know if it fully reflects when you look at the numbers. You have these odd moments pick up, but the fact that he's still placed among ahead of other drivers is pretty mad considering the narrative that was happening in that first half of the season. But of course, KMag did bounce back really strong. In Kosa, he drove really well, got an eight from me, Mexico, a 10, as I mentioned.

Qatar got a nine as well. and yeah K-Mag's a great driver just can also lose his head a little bit which is what we've seen and also played the team game so as he kept reminding all of us your P-16 Tommy my P-16 is doing

and also Tommy 20 minutes please 20 minutes please analysis thank you yeah of course he slots into that kind of great again you mentioned about Ocon mine's quite similar there's a lot of drivers with very close to

to six and doing with one grade slots him into this kind of part but he's very, very difficult to judge got the six because essentially

he made no mistakes but yeah would have been kind of hilarious if he'd have done an unbelievable job got a 10 and then of course he would have been

first. That would have been quite something. Okay, P15 P15 is Albon again with a six point zero from me as his average over the season but he's ahead of doing because of his best score being a nine

which he got in Monaco, Silverstone, Monser and Azerbaijan so yeah I think Albon had another decent season not as good as last year where again you know I think this this whole how good is Alban.

We'll find out a lot more when he's against Carlos Sines next year. He had an amazing season last year, but he was against Logan Sargent. This year wasn't quite as strong, but still put in some great performances, you know, with the four nines that I gave him.

His worst races were, of course, Circuit the Americas in Austin, where had an absolute shocker, um, collided at the start, went off, um, outqualified by colopold

Pinto and then in Brazil running so well and looking like he was going to have an unbelievable result in qualifying and then crashed so hard that he didn't even compete in the race. Sadly not. My P15 is Liam Lawson with a 6.0 average grade as well. His best score was a 10 in Cota, no surprise. And yeah, I will echo kind of what we mentioned with your grading to me. I think he has been a victim of his own hype a little bit after coming into the just out of nowhere and really sort of delivering just straight off the bat and then maybe having a few average races and getting a poorer grade. Perhaps if he'd come in a bit slower, we would have then been a little bit nicer with our grades. And I think on reflection going into next year, you've got to remember that, yeah, he's not got that many races under his belt.

And he is going up against Sonoda, who is, of course, highly rated. How rated? We don't know. And is Lawson going to be in the Red Ball next year? there's going to be plenty of things to factor into that as well but I think Lawson's done an all right job has he done enough to get the Red Bull seat in my opinion no not versus Sonoda but Red Bull have all the telemetry

all the data and well or they have one piece of telemetry and they just delete Sonodas whatever it might be but yeah we'll see maybe Lawson will be in a Red Bull next year and will that be great grades coming as well way or not we will have to find out P-14 then and it's Alex Albon with a six point average grade. I think he had a good season.

But once again, we, for most of it, he had a teammate that was absolutely not highly rated. And I'm so fascinated to see what Science does at Williams next year. Because Albon, in the juniors here, coming up, he's, all the drivers see Albon as a fantastic talent.

And I am really interested to see how signs will stack up. Because if Signs is, even a little bit better than Albon considering how long Alex has been at the team that won't look good on him but, but yeah, this is all ifs buts and question marks at the moment so I'm looking forward to it,

but I think Albon's had a decent-ish season. The Williams hasn't been great and he's done some decent races in Monaco, Silverstone, Italy and Azerbaijan. So, yeah, not a horrendous season at all for Albon. What about your P-14, Tommy? P-14 for me is Ocon with 6.0

and it's funny we mention about how close this kind of cluster is because Ocon is 18th for you and 14th for me and I've given him 0.1 of a grade more on average for the whole season. That's mad. Which shows how close and how difficult

it is to kind of judge really those the drivers that have sort of I think had kind of okay seasons, sometimes really good, sometimes really poor, and not enough to make it into the top 10, for example. There's been a lot of drivers that are very similar to this, of course.

He got the 10 in Brazil, which was an unbelievable drive and just showed that people should not underrate him. The Monaco was the biggest low point by a long way when he crashed into Gasly and basically turned to that whole Alpine relationship, very sour it seems. and there was talks of him even getting replaced then and kind of missing the next race, but instead it's happened at the end of the season instead for the final race.

Let's go to P-13 now. P-13 is Yuki-Sinoda with a 6.6 from me. So a big jump, big jump now. Indeed, yeah, best score. I gave him a 10 in Australia when he was best of the rest and had a brilliant drive. Same with Miami, where he bagged a load of points.

Worst score, you got a four in China, Canada, Spain, Italy and Mexico, which kind of shows you that maybe the inconsistencies that Yuki Sanoda has still because at the start of the season, you know, when he has a good race, he's getting nines and tens and getting what we feel is the absolute maximum out of the car

beating his teammates that he's kind of been against. And at the start of the season, he was finishing best of the rest a lot of the time. But he still is very, you know, still has those moments where he can have like an absolute stinker of a race. And it kind of, rather than just kind of going under the radar and he's finishing 13th or whatever, and no one cares,

it's kind of worse than that and something goes wrong or there's an incident or he's crashed or something like that. So yeah, um, difficult, uh, kind of driver to judge really, but maybe, well, maybe that's why the Red Bull and their logic as well, with how it is with Sonoda. My P-13, unlucky for some, is also Yuki Sanoda with a 6.6 average grades.

So despite you being a fanboy, Tommy, I've graded him exactly the same across the entire season, which is quite baffling, to be honest, because we never speak about each other's grades before we record any of the episodes and here we are with the same brain so that's exciting but yeah i went for a 10 in australia and japan and gave him a worst score of three in mexico yuki's like as much as he's got these errors and these inconsistencies occasionally he's showing enough to get promoted and he's shown enough to get promoted for quite some time like maybe he'll need a need a bit of nurturing Maybe he'll need to rein it back a little bit. But what Formula One teams want,

and you see a Mercedes with Kimi Antonelli, for example, it's just raw speed. If you've got the raw speed, everything else can fit into place eventually with the right coaching and whatever. So for Sonoda, 13th, I think, he has had a good season and perhaps with the RB falling off slightly,

that's why he wasn't able to excel more in these average driver grades. But he can still be proud, I think, of what he's achieved. and how far he's come since he joined Formula One and hopefully he'll be rewarded, but let's see. And that brings us to the end of part one of our F1 driver ratings for the 2024 Formula One season.

I hope you've enjoyed. And the best part, obviously, part two, is coming very soon. So look forward to that where we reflect from P12 all the way to P1. Tommy, final thoughts? Final thoughts? Can't wait to see who's made it to number one. Who could it be? Oh, I wonder, Tommy.

saying, wow. Oh, I love him so much. Right, see you soon. Everybody, take care, lots of love. Sweet dreams. Bye. Keep pushing in the gym. Someone at P and the P and the Pmore Live said, keep hoovering or told me to tell them to keep hoovering.

So go and hoover. Keep over. There you go. P1 is a stack production and part of the Acast creator network.