F1 drivers anonymously voted the ten top ten amongst themselves for the 2024 season and picked
Max Verstappen as the best.
As has been the tradition for the last
seven years,
Formula 1 conducted a
poll among the F1 drivers on the grid
after the end of the season.
The drivers were then asked to pick their top 10 for the most recent season. Each top 10 was then assigned points based on F1's point-scoring system. The first driver received 25 points, and the last received 1 point. See F1's point-scoring system below.
F1 point-scoring system
Position | 1🥇 | 2🥈 | 3🥉 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Points | 25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
The 17 drivers who participated in the poll included
Lando Norris, Oscar, Piastri,
Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sianz,
George Russell,
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll,
Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon,
Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.
The three F1 drivers who didn't participate were
Sergio Perez,
Lewis Hamilton, and
Max Verstappen who
won for the
fourth consecutive year.
Eight out of 17 drivers put the four-time world champion in the first place. At the same time, everyone had Verstappen in their top 4.
Interestingly, when the same poll was conducted among
team principals, they all unanimously ranked Verstappen as the best for 2024. See the drivers' ranking below.
Top 10 F1 drivers in 2024 as ranked by themselves
Ranking | Team | Driver | Compared To 2023 |
1 🥇 | Red Bull | Max Verstappen | 🟰 |
2 🥈 | McLaren | Lando Norris | ⬆️ 2 |
3 🥉 | Ferrari | Charles Leclerc | ⬆️ 2 |
4 | Mercedes | George Russell | NEW |
5 | McLaren | Oscar Piastri | ⬆️ 3 |
6 | Ferrari | Carlos Sainz | 🟰 |
7 | Alpine | Pierre Gasly | ⬆️ 2 |
8 | Haas | Nico Hulkenberg | NEW |
9 | Aston Martin | Fernando Alonso | ⬇️ 6 |
10 | Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton | ⬇️ 8 |
Although it would be super interesting to know each driver's ranking, their votes remain secret, so we have only the final ranking. According to F1, most drivers, although not all, didn't place themselves first.
George Russell made the
biggest climb of the year. Many didn't rate his previous season very well, so in 2023, the
Mercedes F1 driver
wasn't actually inside the top 10. In 2024, he was ranked in
P4,
six positions higher than his teammate.
Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, lost the most positions year-to-year. Whereas in 2023, drivers ranked the seven-time world champion as the second best, he barely made the top 10 in 2024.