F1 2025 driver ratings: Verstappen loses No 1 spot, Norris down in fourth

Telegraph

08-07-2025

With the British Grand Prix completed, we have reached the half-way point of the 2025 Formula One season. There is no better time, then, to rank and rate the 21 drivers who have competed this year.
We have delved deeper than the overall standings and headline stats to assess how each driver is performing, awarding points for each race weekend (20 points for the best down to one for the worst) and totalled up over the season so far, adjusting for those who have not completed all races.
As this list follows on from our first rankings in May, we note whether the drivers have moved up, down or if they stayed where they were.
You have to feel for both of Pierre Gasly's team-mates this season. They are in a difficult car, in tough circumstances and under immense pressure to perform knowing that they could be – or indeed have been – replaced at short notice. Has Franco Colapinto done any better or worse than Jack Doohan since coming in? Neither, in short. But it is a very low bar.
A series of expensive errors knowing that Colapinto was waiting in the wings cost the Australian his seat.
Since Tsunoda switched to Red Bull he has not only been outscored enormously by team-mate Max Verstappen but also Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the sister team. Worse still, he is showing signs of regression. He might get to the end of the season with this team, but you feel that the end could be nigh for his F1 career.
There have been some good moments from Stroll this season, including seventh in the wet – when he usually excels – at Silverstone. He leads Alonso on points at the half-way stage but that is incredibly unrepresentative. Way too distant in qualifying and is a long way from getting the best from an improved AMR25.
Lawson is starting to find his feet again at Racing Bulls, where the car is more benign than the RB21. From Monaco onwards he has been fairly evenly matched with team-mate Isack Hadjar in our ratings. He has still struggled in qualifying against him (around three-tenths slower) but put in strong race performances in Monaco and especially Austria.
It may seem a lowly position, but the Brazilian rookie should be encouraged by the first half of his debut year in F1. Firstly, he has pushed Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying (less than a tenth of a second behind on average). In races he has been a little more distant, but picked up a strong eighth in Austria and has at least regularly been in contention for the top 10 since Sauber's recent improvement.
Bearman placed in the top 10 in our previous rankings but has slipped down to 15th after some questionable performances. There is not much between Bearman and Gasly in 11th, but the Haas rookie has been penalised in our system for the two red-flag infringements in Monaco and Great Britain. The latter of those resulted in a pit-lane crash, and both are inexcusable. Has failed to score a point since round three in Bahrain.
It did look as if Carlos Sainz had got his head around his new team and his new car. But after a run of beating Alexander Albon in qualifying four times out of five, he has now been beaten four times out of the last five. Thirteen points is not a totally representative return compared to Albon's 46, but Sainz has no doubt been second best to his team-mate, though has been beset by some ill-fortune.
As the season goes on, Ocon is gradually showing his class and experience compared to his more inexperienced team-mate. Since we last did our ratings at the end of May, he has had another two points finishes and has only been beaten on track (by two places) by Bearman once in that time, despite qualifying behind him three times. That said, taking out his team-mate at Silverstone was not a good look and may have cost the team points.
The last couple of months have been erratic for the Italian teenager. After a solid start of six points finishes in the first seven rounds, his only top 10 since then is an excellent maiden podium in Canada with four non-finishes in six rounds and 18th in Monaco. Some of those DNFs were not his fault but others were down to rookie errors. It is not unfair to say that, as talented as he is, he is still finding his feet in F1.
It is hard to get a genuine read on how good Gasly has been this season because of the flakiness of his team-mates. Still, it is difficult to imagine that he could have done a great deal more in a car that is somewhere towards the back of the midfield both in qualifying – though less so – and race pace. Two strong points finishes in Spain and Great Britain mean that he jumps a few places from his previous position of 14th. A quietly impressive season.
After placing 15th in our previous list, Hulkenberg has jumped up the rankings into the top 10. That is no surprise, as he has scored 31 points in the last four rounds – more than Max Verstappen and only nine fewer than both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Four of his points finishes in 2025 have come from the lower reaches on the grid, too.
He has not shown his usual qualifying dominance over his team-mate, but as soon as the Sauber was able to regularly contend from points he has delivered them.
Still the highest-placed rookie in our list, but Hadjar has slipped down a couple of spots after some indifferent form. Seventh in Spain was his fourth top-10 in five races but he has not troubled the points since. Points may be harder to come by now with the revival of Sauber and an incredibly tight midfield, but this has been a strong start for the Frenchman.
The two-time champion has shot up our rankings from 13th to equal seventh on the basis of his performances in the last four races. After scoring no points in the first eight rounds, he now has 16 in the last four in an improved Aston Martin. He has destroyed Stroll in qualifying, beating him 13-1 and averaging nearly 0.7sec faster.
Alonso is still frustrated at the competitiveness of his car, and sometimes the decisions his team makes, but now there is the chance of points in the AMR25 he is delivering every weekend.
Things have settled down a little for Hamilton at Ferrari after a turbulent start. There is no chance of a championship or even victories at the moment, so it is about getting the best from the car. Is he doing that? No, but he is now a lot closer to achieving that than he was after six rounds.
The encouraging signs are that he is now proving a match for Leclerc in qualifying, beating him in three of the last four rounds. Silverstone and Imola aside he has not quite matched him on Sundays, but is at least limiting the damage in a more competitive car.
6. Alexander Albon, Williams – 148pts (down 1)
Albon has clung onto his lofty position in this list largely through his efforts in the first part of the season. That is not to say that he has been poor since Monaco, but his eighth place at Silverstone was his first points finish and indeed his first finish since Monaco.
Williams have slipped back a little, so he might struggle to repeat his first-half results from here on. That said, that he is comfortably the best-performing Williams driver against a highly-rated Sainz is another tick. He has scored points in all but one of the races in which he took the chequered flag.
In 2025 so far Leclerc has met expectations. That is not doing him down, but his ability, record and reputation over his career is so high that it is not a surprise he is where he is in the championship.
His advantage over Hamilton in qualifying has lessened since early on, which is to be expected. Now the Ferrari is fighting to be the second-quickest car behind McLaren, he has been able to score three podiums in the last five rounds. Silverstone was a rare blip.
Norris retains fourth but could have moved up more were it not for his aberration in Canada. There is no excuse for crashing into your team-mate like that. Since that embarrassing moment, though, he has won two races and closed the gap in the drivers' championship to just eight points.
Perhaps the Montreal crash forced the reset he really needed? Or has it been the suspension tweak he has made to his McLaren? Hard to say, but if he is to win the championship he needs to repeat this form over the next 12 rounds.
Like team-mate Antonelli, Russell's recent rounds have been up and down, though less extreme. Aside from his win in Canada he has finished fourth, fifth and 10th. Silverstone was a missed opportunity after starting from fourth but the Mercedes probably wasn't quite there to contend in any case.
Like a few others in the list, there is surely not a great deal more that Russell could be doing in this car. Antonelli has not proved much competition but a lot of that is down to Russell's consistently high level.
Verstappen has slipped down from first to second (and by a reasonable margin) for one main reason – his silly, stupid and inexcusable clash with George Russell in Spain. Overall he has performed exceptionally well, but the last four races have been weak, a second place in Canada aside.
His non-finish in Austria was not his fault but Red Bull have struggled to give him a car that can truly contend for victory. That is the story of the last 12 months. That said, his sensational pole lap at Silverstone shows what he is capable of.
For the first time this season Piastri has gone three races without a victory, losing ground to team-mate Norris. There is no doubt that the Australian has lost a little bit of his edge in recent rounds and has made more mistakes too.
Some of those have been small and in qualifying, but his Safety Car infringement in the British Grand Prix is his first major mistake since his opening-round spin. The time penalty was deserved, whatever he says. That said, he is still having a superb season and deserves to top this list.