DRIVER RATINGS UPDATE (AUGUST)

Despite Red Bull Racing’s domination at the front of the grid, with their unbeaten record extending to 13 races in a row, there’s been plenty to fight for throughout the field.

In the two races since the previous Driver Ratings update there have been some standout performances from McLaren, some disappointing results from Alpine, and some consistent finishes from Mercedes.

With this latest update, the F1® 23 Driver Ratings are caught up with the season so far. Anthony Davidson and Alex Jacques have considered the performances we’ve seen, feeding into the race data, and helped calculate the updated ratings. To view the fully updated list and to compare stats of drivers directly, check out the Driver Ratings hub by clicking here. 

Before we get into some highlighted changes, here’s a reminder on how scores for the drivers have been put together:

• Racecraft (RAC): Racecraft describes a driver's ability to work their way through the pack to finish the race higher up than where they started.
• Experience (EXP): This stat has been amended this year to determine how much value each race result contributes to the driver's experience in the earlier and mid stages of their career. Fernando Alonso's record of race starts is used as the max points for the experience rating, sitting at 99 points.
• Pace (PAC): Pace rewards the drivers who get closest to the fastest Race and Qualifying lap times as well as the difference to their teammates.
• Awareness (AWA): Awareness rewards drivers who avoid the stewards' room. And for the ones that don't, the severity of errors now counts more towards their Awareness rating.
• Overall Rating (RTG): A combination of all driver stats that lays out each driver's ability within F1® 23, with a higher weighting for Pace.

Let’s get into a couple highlights:

Oscar Piastri

Off the back of a team resurgence from McLaren that saw some mighty performances including a return to the podium for Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri could consider himself unlucky not to have secured his first podium in F1® during the first half of the season.

Qualifying 4th in Hungary and finishing the race in 5th set up a great opportunity for success in Belgium. He finished second in the Sprint behind Max Verstappen at Spa-Francorchamps, before unfortunately retiring on lap 1 of the main race, colliding with Carlos Sainz going into turn 1.  

Piastri appeared wise beyond his years in his inaugural F1® season, and has now moved up to 11th in the Driver’s championship. His Pace is up four, Racecraft up three, and Experience and Awareness up by a point each taking his Overall rating to 79 from 76.

This change presents the biggest improvement across the grid and we’re sure it won’t be long before we see him on the podium.

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin surprised everyone at the start of 2023, with Fernando Alonso gracing the podium in five of the six opening races. Despite this, Lance Stroll’s summer break may include some quiet contemplation.

Whilst his team-mate currently sits third in the Driver’s championship behind the two Red Bulls on 148 points, Lance’s points total sits at 48, putting him down in 9th. His best finish of the season, a 4th place in Australia, seems like a long time ago with his last five races having him finish no better than 9th.

Lance’s 9th and 10th place finishes in Hungary and Spa respectively, have impacted his Overall ranking by negative two, with a drop of two in Pace and Racecraft, and a drop of one for Awareness. We hope Lance can get back to form after the break.

Max Verstappen

What more can be said about Max Verstappen that hasn’t been already? He continues to outperform his teammate Sergio Perez, he’s on track to beat some incredible records, and could even wrap up the Driver’s Championship in record time too.

Eight wins in a row despite a five place grid penalty in Belgium, a 100+ point lead in the Championship, and you know he won’t step off the gas in the second half of the season.

Max has had a plus one boost on all of his stats - Experience, Racecraft, Awareness, and Pace - resulting in his Overall rating rising to 96.

Don’t forget to check out the full grid breakdown by heading to the Driver Ratings hub here.

Agree or disagree on these changes? Let us know! Plus, be sure to keep up to date on the latest F1® 23 news by following the official Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube channels.