2024 F1 Qatar GP: Driver Ratings

The 2024 F1 Qatar GP had everything for everyone. There was a lot of drama, a lot of action, and then there was some heartbreak as well. The race weekend ended with Max Verstappen picking up another win while it also had what could only be described as questionable race management.

The race weekend had some excellent performances from the front to the back. It also had some shockers. So how did every driver fare at the F1 Qatar GP? Let's take a look.

Criteria

Performance in both qualifying and races is judged.
Results achieved compared to the potential of the car.
Mistakes made over the weekend.
Relative performance against teammate.

2024 F1 Qatar GP: Rating the drivers

Red Bull

Max Verstappen

Rating: 9

It's safe to say one should not anger Max Verstappen because then he just goes on to win races and makes his competitors look incompetent. This was the drive of a world champion enabled by a team that knows how to win titles.

For people doubting if Verstappen can win another title with Red Bull, this served as a nice little reminder.

Sergio Perez

Rating: 4

This might just have been the second last race of Sergio Perez's F1 career. At least that's what the commentary from Christian Horner suggested. The Mexican didn't have the best of weekends, as he appears to come to the end of the road in the sport.

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton

Rating: 3

A poor sprint, a jump start, speeding through pitlane, and then a plea to retire the car. This was one of the worst weekends from Lewis Hamilton in a long time.

George Russell

Rating: 8

From looking forward to challenging for the win from pole position to upsetting Max Verstappen and not even securing a podium, this was a bad one for George Russell. The Mercedes driver soon found out in the race that the pace was just not there.

The F1 Qatar GP showed that Russell can fight at the front, but it also showed that Mercedes still needs some work.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc

Rating: 9

This was a P2 finish in the 4th fastest car at the F1 Qatar GP race weekend from Charles Leclerc, and that's what should stand out the most from his drive. The Ferrari driver nailed everything that he could have this weekend in the main race although he would be the first to admit that maybe he could have done a better job for the sprint.

Carlos Sainz

Rating: 7.5

Carlos Sainz was just a step behind teammate Charles Leclerc in the main race, and that cost him eventually. What also was a surprise was the inability to maybe pose a challenge to Pierre Gasly while driving a Ferrari. It could have been even better for the Spaniard by the looks of it, but it seemingly didn't work out as he would have liked.

McLaren

Lando Norris

Rating: 5

That penalty was brutal, and the timing was at the worst possible time. Lando Norris had the pace, and he could have possibly won the race if one or two things lined up perfectly. Unfortunately, they didn't, and he was very disappointed after the race because of that.

Oscar Piastri

Rating: 7.5

Oscar Piastri was just that step behind his teammate all weekend. He got the win in Sprint, handed by Lando Norris as payback, but one would feel that maybe there was more that could have been done in the car.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso

Rating: 8

This was ruthless vintage Fernando Alonso at best this weekend, and the Spaniard did whatever Aston Martin allowed him to do. You can see the frustration creeping in but Alonso would be looking keenly at 2026 with the hopes of hitting the jackpot as Adrian Newey joins the squad.

Lance Stroll

Rating: 4

In what has been a regular occurrence, Lance Stroll was once again nowhere close to Fernando Alonso. The F1 Qatar GP was just another reminder that the team needs something different behind the wheel.

Alpine

Pierre Gasly

Rating: 8.5

Regardless of whether Pierre Gasly had the car advantage over Esteban Ocon or not, the result at the F1 Qatar GP is brilliant. The French driver is flying the Alpine flag on his own and getting the best that he can in the car he's driving.

Esteban Ocon

Rating: 4

And that's over for the Ocon-Alpine partnership, and it possibly could have been handled better. It's easy to assign blame, but one thing that should not be doubted is that the Frenchman is not a driver who is a second slower than any driver on the grid, especially not his teammate Pierre Gasly, over whom he more or less had the edge this season until he announced that he was leaving for Haas.

Ocon leaves Alpine as easily the best they had, especially with the team also more or less going out of existence.

Williams

Alex Albon

Rating: 6

Causing a collision with Kevin Magnussen was not the best thing for Alex Albon, but he was almost always up against it when it came to getting anything out of the F1 Qatar GP race weekend.

Franco Colapinto

Rating: 5

A weekend to forget for Franco Colapinto. The Argentinian was running an older spec, and it did come down to the driver just never finding himself in the groove all weekend.

V-Ca-RB

Liam Lawson

Rating: 5

The bad news for Liam Lawson is that he once again showed far too many chinks in his armor during the F1 Qatar GP. The good news is that it seemingly doesn't matter at Red Bull as the driver is the frontrunner to replace Sergio Perez.

This mini stint at RB has done more harm than good for Lawson when it comes to his candidature, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure in the senior team.

Yuki Tsunoda

Rating: 6

The reality of Yuki Tsunoda's weekend was that the car was just not fast enough for him to make much of an impression. This became clear very quickly in the first stint as the RB fell through the grid like a stone. The Japanese driver, unfortunately, could not back up the kind of work he did at Las Vegas with another strong one in Qatar GP.

Stake F1 Sauber

Valtteri Bottas

Rating: 7

Valtteri Bottas would have hoped for better luck all weekend, but that was not to be. Sauber has seemingly made improvements on the car, but the Finnish driver just missed out on points in the Swiss car.

Guanyu Zhou

Rating: 9

The best weekend of the season for Sauber and Guanyu Zhou, as the team and the driver scored their first points of the season and did so on merit. The car worked great around the F1 Qatar GP track layout, and in the end, it was all about making the most of what they had in hand.

The Chinese driver possibly had the best race of his F1 career as it slowly comes to an end.

Haas F1

Kevin Magnussen

Rating: 7.5

A decent race that saw the Danish driver finish in points was a brilliant thing for Haas as well as Kevin Magnussen, which ended up preventing Alpine from taking too big a lead. An overall decent weekend from the driver whose association with the team ends after Abu Dhabi.

Nico Hulkenberg

Rating: 5

A great sprint was followed by a poor Qatar GP main race for Hulkenberg. The clash at the start was unfortunate and not necessarily anyone's fault.

The German ran a possibly damaged car for the rest of the F1 Qatar GP and could not make much of an impression in that.