He claimed a good win in Singapore and should have won in Canada and Russia. There were some wobbles, and he struggled to match Sainz in qualifying in the second half of the year, but given how well Sainz did it's hard to judge Norris too harshly on that. He was the youngest man on the 2019 grid but often raced like a seasoned veteran. Verdict: Norris deserved his rookie of the year award. Bottas 2.0 must be a yearlong thing in 2020 if he wants any chance of beating Hamilton (or anyone else) to the title. After six straight weeks in the top five, he never returned once the rot set in. Verdict: Bottas is propped up by his strong start to the year. Once Sainz found his groove, he was in masterful form - especially on Sundays - and has probably left Red Bull ruing the fact they ever let him leave the driver programme. The Spaniard may have been above Leclerc in the averages were it not for a slightly slow start to the year. Even without a podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Sainz was the standout performer of 2019. The biggest mark of respect to Leclerc this year was that he took Ferrari's preseason belief that Vettel was the driver to back and quickly tore it to pieces. Though Ferrari stumbled over itself on numerous occasions, Leclerc usually came out of those situations looking much better than teammate Sebastian Vettel, something the Power Rankings often reflected. His season was not without big mistakes - crashing out of Q2 in Baku and his error-filled Monaco Grand Prix spring to mind - but he balanced that out with two brilliant wins, including a popular victory for Ferrari at Monza, and more pole positions than anyone else. Verdict: Propelled up the order by a four-week run at the top after his victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, it would have been difficult to put Leclerc lower. This was the season Verstappen showed he is ready to beat Hamilton to a championship - now he just needs the car to do it. Verstappen was sublime in 2019, and his wins in Austria, Germany and Brazil were all memorable in their own way. Often they were simply swapping positions at the top. The eventual average finishing position was 1.75 for Hamilton and 1.96 for Verstappen, showing how close they were all year. Take away the German Grand Prix and his clumsy clash with Alex Albon in Brazil (one race after wrapping up the championship) and there isn't a blemish on Hamilton's sixth title-winning campaign. But do the averages give a fair representation of every driver's season? Let's find out. With the conclusion of the 2019 Formula One season, we are doing our end-of-year rankings a little differently this year.īy looking at a driver's highest peak and lowest dips in our weekly Power Rankings, we can chart the consistent drivers, the late bloomers, those who had a roller-coaster year and those who just had a year to forget. Power Rankings: The best and worst drivers of F1 2019 You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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