Driver Pairing Rankings for 2024 Season
Ahead of the 2024 season in which there was no changes to the end of season driver lineups (Daniel Ricciardo did take Nyck de Vries seat halfway through last season). I will be ranking the ten pairings based on how well I think they will boast up the performance of the car rather than having the car put in a majority of the work. This will be the first part of me ranking different aspects of the grid, whether it be drivers, team principals, car performance etc.
#10: Stake
(Or whatever the name is now)
Kick us off at number 10 I’m going to have to throw in Stake F1, formerly known as Alfa Romeo. They are the definition of uninspiring, never really having any standout performances last year. Valtteri Bottas here and the Valtteri Bottas at Mecedes are two different specimen. He looked faster and more confident. Bottas, it seems, is taking the Kimi route and easing into retirement. Zhou just wasn’t there. He had a hard time keeping up, getting beat 15-6 in qualifying head-to-head and 12-9 in race head-to-head. This season I don’t expect much of a difference.
#9: Haas
While Nico Hulkenberg can be fast around a lap, Kevin Magnussen sure can’t. Race pace Magnussen probably has the advantage, but only just. This lineup is two guys who are past their primes racing in what will probably be the worst car in the grid and for a team with seemingly no direction or strong leadership. The sole reason they aren’t last is Hulkenberg’s qualifying pace. It was the one thing that made me root for Haas last year. Alfa Romeo didn’t really give me a reason.
#8: Williams
This one was tough. I really wanted to put them at #7 ahead of Alpha Tauri, but retaining Logan Sargeant just doesn’t give them enough edge. Alex Albon last season was brilliant. Apart from Max, he was driver of the year for me. Single-handily brought that Williams team up to seventh in the constructors. But sadly I just can’t put them any higher than this as the performance of his teammate drags them down. Sargeant was (probably) the worst driver on the grid last year who drove the whole year (otherwise it would be de Vries). Scoring only one point, on a technicality none the less, is pretty disappointing when you compare that to his teammate’s performance in the same car. There were tracks where he should’ve scored points, but just couldn’t which, as an American, is extremely disappointing.
#7: Alpha Tauri
This pairing could soar up the rankings during this coming season. Yuki Tsunoda is now experienced in the sport and in the team, Daniel Ricciardo is a top driver on his best day, and if the car can continue to improve the way it did down the stretch of last season; they have a real chance at competing with Aston Martin and Alpine for mid-table seeding. Both Tsunoda and Ricciardo have a strong, consistent performances that I hope they can build on because I would love to see Yuki get his first podium this upcoming season. I just need to see a bit more from both before I move them up this list.
#6: Alpine
Another one that I wrestled with was this one and Aston Martin who are just above them at #5. The two reasons I opted to go Alpine here is that they don’t have one standout driver and instead have two drivers that put in gritty performances each race, and that they race each other two hard and don’t think about the team always. It is a team ranking after all, not who has is the best individually. We saw it in the Australian Grand Prix last year when the pair collided; effectively ending both their races. This team won’t be competing for championships so if they want to succeed, they will have to put ego’s aside and do what is best for the team, something Aston Martin didn’t seem to have to much of a problem with.
#5: Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso is an absolute machine. I mean he was near perfect last year in his first year with the team. However, his teammate isn’t quite on his level. Lance Stroll is not a good F1 driver, but not a bad one either. We saw it last year at Bahrain when he had a near broken hand and still took 4th place. After that it was a whole lot of middle of the road driving. He struggled to get to Q3 consistently, but seemingly had decent race pace. He also wasn’t bad when driving against another World Champion, Sebastian Vettel. It might just take a bit of time to see what driving a fast car is like again. Fernando will look to continue to defy father time and elevate this team further next year, while Stroll will be looking to keep up.
#4: Ferrari
As a big fan of Charles Leclerc, this one hurt to do. Both him and Carlos Sainz are rapid on their day. But when it isn’t, it plummets. I can’t recall a team who has such a rollercoaster of driver performance. Leclerc is obviously the better and more consistent driver, but he still makes a lot of mistakes. Sainz is a great number two driver but again, just too many mistakes. Australia comes to mind for him. They will both need to do a better job of keeping the car on the track if they want a shot at competing with Red Bull this year.
#3: Mercedes
Again, this paints me to write. My favorite driver is George Russell, so him being a big reason why Mercedes aren’t number one stings. Lewis, I feel like doesn’t need much explanation. GOAT driver, still extremely rapid and consistent. There is practically nothing that this man does wrong. George is well on his way to being considered best of the best until this season. Not only was he noticeably slower than Lewis in the race, he put his own wants ahead of the team needs at times and raced his teammate way too hard. Singapore isn’t also great but not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. He’s already showed he can race at the front from last year. He held off attacks from both Lewis and Max to win Interlagos and held off Max in a far superior car in Spain for multiple laps until he couldn’t literally couldn’t defend anymore without disabling DRS. But that is still a race that Mercedes should’ve won. He almost cost them second in the constructors.
#2: Red Bull
This one I’m kind of going off my own standards but here is why: Max Verstappen. Best season of all time, numerous records broken yada yada yada. You’ve probably heard it. Sergio Perez is what is keeping them from number one. He is by no means a bad driver though; he just isn’t suited for a top team. He has the pace and has shown flashes of it at times, particularly at Saudi Arabia these last two years, he just can never put together a full season. Driving next to Max is also no easy feat as he is well known to crush teammates (Ricciardo being the only one to truly compete with him in 2016). He just needs to show more for me to put Red Bull higher.
#1: McLaren
McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes were all big tossups for me and really could’ve been in any position but I chose McLaren for a reason. Lando Norris is an extreme talent who is rapid on any day, rarely makes mistakes and has shown he can compete at the front with the top drivers (2021 Sochi being the lone exception). The big story of 2023 though was F2 champion and top rookie, Oscar Piastri. Yes he got beat firmly by Lando, but it was also his first season AND he got put into a team who’s car became on the best on the grid. Having the performances he did, particularly Silverstone, shows why he belongs at a top team and I fully expect him to take the next step up in 2024 and bring more of a fight to Lando.
Well that’s a wrap on my Driver Pairing Rankings. I had a difficult time with a few of these but after a lot of thought I believe I made the right decisions. McLaren have all to show why they deserve to be up there, but also why they might not. These are, in my opinion, going to be very fluid once the season starts. Let me know any thoughts, comments and concerns below and thank you for reading!
