2023 F1 Mexican GP: Driver ratings
The 2023 F1 Mexican GP saw Max Verstappen pick up his 16th win of the season, a season where he's breaking records for fun now. Once he had got a better start than the Ferraris, there was no going back. The Dutch driver was unchallenged as he went on to clinch another win for Red Bull.
Having said that, this feature is not for the race, it is for the drivers. The drivers toiled through the high altitude to put together an impressive race. How did the 20 of them perform at the 2023 F1 Mexican GP? Let's take a look.
Criteria for rating: When we rate the drivers, there are a few things that we take into consideration. These are:
- Performance in both qualifying and race
- Results achieved compared to the potential of the car
- How many mistakes were made over the weekend
- Relative performance against their teammate
2023 F1 Mexican GP: Rating the drivers
Red Bull
Max Verstappen (Started: 3rd, Finished: 1st)
Rating: 9.5
An almost flawless weekend once again from Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was pipped for pole by the Ferraris but he knew he had the pace in store to take advantage in the race.
He got the jump at the start of the race and from that point onwards it was plain sailing. Win No. 16 for Verstappen and he thoroughly deserved that.
Sergio Perez (Started: 5th, Finished: DNF)
Rating: 5
The worst possible F1 Mexican GP was Sergio Perez.
Getting outqualified by Daniel Ricciardo and then a first-lap crash is certainly not what he has in mind this weekend.
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (Started: 1st, Finished: 3rd)
Rating: 9
A strong weekend overall. A great pole position lap once again.
Charles Leclerc was maybe a little unlucky with the timing of the Red Flag but had an overall impressive F1 Mexican GP.
Carlos Sainz (Started: 2nd, Finished: 4th)
Rating: 8
Carlos Sainz was just a step behind Charles Leclerc overall and that's where Ferrari ideally wants him to be. A solid weekend for the Spaniard.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton (Started: 6th, Finished: 2nd)
Rating: 9.5
That was a beautiful drive on Sunday by Lewis Hamilton. With the new upgrade, he seems to have found another step.
A win was not possible for the Mercedes driver in any way but P2 in the 2023 F1 Mexican GP was a brilliant showing.
George Russell (Started: 8th, Finished: 7th)
Rating: 7
George Russell seems to be struggling with the new upgrades brought to the car. The driver is not performing at the level at which his teammate is doing right now and it currently is quite visible.
A bad weekend for Russell as he lost more points to his teammate.
Alpine
Pierre Gasly (Started: 11th, Finished: 11th)
Rating: 7.5
Pierre Gasly would be a bit disappointed with the race but the differentiating factor came down to the tire choice.
Gasly went with the hard tire post red flag and that cost him possibly a points-paying position.
Esteban Ocon (Started: 15th, Finished: 10th)
Rating: 7
At one point in the race, it did appear that Esteban Ocon was going to finish last in the F1 Mexican GP. Then a lot of cars in front of him decided to pit and Kevin Magnussen decided to crash. This brought out the red flag and helped Ocon make up a few places.
Then came the restart where Ocon was on the medium tire and that helped him make up four more places and score a point. A decent salvage job from the French driver.
McLaren
Lando Norris (Started: 17th, Finished: 6th)
Rating: 7.5
A poor Qualifying followed by a spectacular race is how Lando Norris' weekend could be described.
In all fairness, he should have been fighting for the podium at the F1 Mexican GP, and the fact that he couldn't surely go against him.
Oscar Piastri (Started: 7th, Finished: 8th)
Rating: 6.5
Oscar Piastri has had two poor weekends on the trot and it does appear that the Australian is finding it hard to adapt to the new tracks.
A weekend where he was rousingly outperformed does not look good for Piastri.
Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas (Started: 9th, Finished: 15th)
Rating: 6
A strong qualifying followed by a poor race for Valtteri Bottas and this should be called out.
The Finn had a strong opportunity to help Alfa Romeo secure a point or two for the championship but once again had a poor start. A disappointing weekend for Bottas.
Guanyu Zhou (Started: 10th, Finished: 14th)
Rating: 5.5
More of the same from Guanyu Zhou who was a step behind Bottas in the entire weekend. Both Alfa Romeo drivers capitulated and lost crucial points for the team.
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso (Started: 13th, Finished: DNF)
Rating: 4
Arguably one of the strangest weekends for the Spaniard. Fernando Alonso was never comfortable in the car and struggled through the race as well. He would be looking to find a way back to form in the next race in Brazil.
Lance Stroll (Started: 20th, Finished: DNF)
Rating: 6
Decent weekend for Lance all things considered. The driver was still eliminated in Q1 and was probably moving a tad too much under braking in the race.
Haas F1
Kevin Magnussen (Started: 16th, Finished: DNF)
Rating: 5
Another weekend where Kevin Magnussen was playing catch up to his teammate and would then crash out from the race. The Danish driver is getting exposed in a big way this season.
Nico Hulkenberg (Started: 12th, Finished: 13th)
Rating: 8
A gut-wrenching race from Nico Hulkenberg. Haas did not deserve to be in the top 10 and score points but the German continued to drag the car in those positions.
Unfortunately, he could not get a point because it was obvious that he extracted everything from the car in the 2023 F1 Mexican GP.
AlphaTauri
Daniel Ricciardo(Started: 4th, Finished: 7th)
Rating: 9.5
The best possible F1 Mexican GP if there ever was one for Daniel Ricciardo. The driver did everything perfectly all weekend but what primarily stood for Ricciardo was his ability to keep calm and keep things smooth when he was battling other cars.
He knew the motive was to get as many points as possible and he went about it in the best possible manner.
Yuki Tsunoda (Started: 18th, Finished: 12th)
Rating: 6
The worst weekend of the season for Yuki Tsunoda. The car was strong and the red flag meant that he had every opportunity to finish the race maybe a position or two behind Daniel Ricciardo but the ill-advised clash with Oscar Piastri made no sense. A bad weekend overall for the Japanese driver
Williams
Alex Albon (Started: 14th, Finished: 9th)
Rating: 8
Another strong weekend for Alex Albon at the 2023 F1 Mexican GP. Albon needs to continue his streak with the team as he's doing reputation no harm with these results.
Logan Sargeant (Started: 19th, Finished: DNF)
Rating: 6.5
A decent overall 2023 F1 Mexican GP for Logan Sargeant. Still too far behind Alex Albon but he's slowly starting to put the weekend together.
Sargeant needs to work on his one-lap pace and if he can sort that out, we're looking at an improved run from him.