Grading the class of F1 2026 so far

The summer break gives Formula 1 a rare moment to catch its breath, with half of the championship still ahead. As the teams prepare to kick off the second half of 2026, this is the right moment to look back at how each of this year’s 22 drivers has actually performed, rather than just where they sit in the standings, and hand out a grade to match. Squeezing 11 grands prix into a single letter is never entirely fair on anyone but, weighing up the full picture of each driver’s season so far, we’ve done exactly that.   

Some have been the model pupils. Others look like they could do with a stern word after class. Here’s how the year’s crop has graded at the halfway point…  

Kimi Antonelli 

Championship position: 1st  

A- 

As tempting as it is to label Antonelli’s first half of 2026 perfect, it wasn’t. There are still a few rough edges to polish – understandable for someone only in his second season of F1 – yet he made the product of his work look bright and shiny thanks to sheer raw pace. Count his FP3 shunt in Melbourne, his messy start in Japan, his track-limits penalty in Miami and a handful of other imperfections as errors if you like, but he simply outran them all by being ridiculously fast.  

On a troubled day, he still banked big points, or even a win, despite not everything going smoothly; on a good day, he was untouchable. So even with technical failures costing him something like 50 points along the way, he still carried a 50-point lead into the summer break. ‘Impressive’ doesn’t quite cover his progression after a difficult rookie season.  

The question is whether he can cope with the pressure and see out the title, but the 19-year-old looks pretty imperious at the moment. 

Lewis Hamilton  

Championship position: 2nd 

A- 

There was no shortage of people who, after Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari, wrote him off – expecting a repeat in 2026, then the logical next step: retirement. Well, that’s not happening. This year looks much more like what you’d expect from a multiple world champion, even this late in his career. He seems far more comfortable in the 2026 car than the stiff, ground-effect machines of the previous era. In several races he’s driven like his old self, and running second in the points without the best car on the grid says a lot about how strong his season has been.   

A podium in China was backed up by a great drive in Canada and topped off with a win at Barcelona, where it was his pace that made an aggressive strategy work.  

Whatever changed over the winter – a reorganised engineering crew, ditching simulator work for good – it’s clearly working. There’s still a sense he’s lost points to needless penalties but, overall, he’s been the better Ferrari driver this year. 

The past, present and future of Mercedes tops the driver standings in F1 2026

Photo by: Dom Gibbons / Formula 1 via Getty Images

George Russell  

Championship position: 3rd  

C 

Third in the standings, 59 points behind a championship leader driving the exact same car, says it all: the first half of 2026 has been a disappointment for the pre-season favourite.  

There’s been a fair amount of bad luck outside Russell’s control. The retirement in Canada was the most painful, but a freak incident in Monaco, plus a software glitch that compromised his start in Hungary, were costly too. Still, Antonelli’s power unit failure at Barcelona and broken wheel shield at Silverstone knocked the main trump card out of Russell’s hand of excuses. It’s not just bad luck that’s left him underdelivering.   

When he gets it all right, he can be every bit as fast as Antonelli, but it’s the weekends when he’s been miles off his team-mate’s pace that have made his title bid so difficult. Whether that’s down to the car simply suiting the Italian better is a complicated one to answer – but there’s no question Russell has struggled far more than expected. 

Charles Leclerc  

Championship position: 4th  

B- 

There’s still plenty of reason to believe that in his ninth season – yes, time flies – Leclerc’s on-the-edge driving style bites him more often than it should. Mistakes marred the start of his season, with unnecessary incidents such as a last-lap spin in Miami and the crash in Barcelona Q3. There was another one, in the Monaco race, which Leclerc blamed on his brakes, and together they reinforced the overall impression: he still isn’t consistent enough for such an experienced driver.  

It also took him a while to find an answer to Lewis Hamilton’s improved form, with the breakthrough not arriving until Silverstone. It was only in the last few rounds before the summer break that Leclerc started to look like the driver Ferrari is betting on for the long term.  

Still, the win at Silverstone – albeit with Antonelli’s challenge removed thanks to the fragility of Mercedes’ W17 – confirms he hasn’t lost his defining trait: outright pace, which makes him a match for anyone on his day. 

The two major title protagonists from the last two years have still performed impressively, even if their machinery hasn't been a match for Mercedes and Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Lando Norris

Championship position: 5th  

A 

Norris’s first half of the season has been worthy of a world champion. While McLaren has struggled to fix multiple car issues, the Briton has kept delivering. Occasions on which he has lacked pace compared to team-mate Oscar Piastri have been rare, with Norris extracting almost everything the McLaren has had to offer. He’s really starred at his favourite tracks, too, with his Miami drive worthy of victory – only an undercut lost and a relentless Antonelli stood between him and another trophy at the venue where he took his first F1 win in 2024.

Between a non-start in China, a gearbox issue in Canada and a power-unit-related retirement in Monaco, Norris effectively finished half of the races he was able to complete on the podium – with McLaren, on average, no better than the third-fastest car. A win in Hungary, once the team introduced its big upgrade, hasn’t put him back in the title fight, but it should leave him more than satisfied with the job he’s done himself.

Max Verstappen 

Championship position: 6th  

A- 

His 2026 so far has been more about his off-track performances – mainly in the media – than anything else. It may not be entirely down to his unfiltered criticism, but F1 backing away from its chosen 50/50 formula for the future owes a clear debt to Verstappen’s persistent public complaints, which were a huge factor in that decision.  

On track, whether because he isn’t enjoying driving this car or simply some of its characteristics, he hasn’t been at his best all the time this year. He’s sometimes underdelivered in qualifying, or made mistakes in races, with Miami the best illustration: he spun on lap one and then picked up a penalty for crossing the white line at pit exit.  

There have still been plenty of races that showcase his brilliance, with Austria a highlight. Even being in contention for a win in what looks like a snappy, capricious car is probably something only he could pull off. 

Piastri has struggled to get the best out of the new generation of F1 cars

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Oscar Piastri 

Championship position: 7th  

C+ 

McLaren boss Andrea Stella reckons Piastri’s smooth, clean driving style isn’t the most efficient way of extracting performance from these new, energy-management-heavy cars. Whether to believe that or simply stick with the narrative that Piastri isn’t McLaren’s favourite driver, one thing’s for sure: when a team principal has to come up with a theory to explain a lack of performance, something isn’t quite right.  

That’s not to say Piastri’s season has been terrible – far from it. There have been a few painful mistakes, like in Melbourne, but for the most part he’s been just a tenth or two consistently behind Lando Norris.  

Piastri’s clearest highlight came at Suzuka, where he was leading until a virtual safety car handed Kimi Antonelli a cheap pitstop – but that’s been more or less the only standout weekend. Hungary could have been another, and he genuinely had a shot at victory, but on pure pace he was slower than Norris all weekend. 

Isack Hadjar  

Championship position: 8th  

B

If you’re the second Red Bull driver and Max Verstappen isn’t wiping the floor with you, you’re doing a great job. Hadjar’s biggest achievement in F1 is that no one’s even talking about Red Bull’s second-car “problem” while he’s the one driving it. The Miami crash was clearly unnecessary but, to Hadjar’s credit, he didn’t let it send him into a spiral – and that’s perhaps one of the qualities you need to survive at Red Bull: he lets a nuclear amount of emotion out, then cools down and turns the page.  

Being close to Verstappen isn’t just what the team demands – it’s also the only reasonable target for someone with only a year of experience in F1. He’s clearly still got plenty to learn, but that’s already been enough to put him within a tenth or two of Verstappen on occasion. And even if Max insists the 2026 formula doesn’t let him “make a difference”, that shouldn’t dent the impression Hadjar’s formed – a promising start to a career with real potential.  

The latest Red Bull merry-go-round seems to have suited Hadjar and Lawson

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Liam Lawson  

Championship position: 9th  

A- 

Lawson seems to be delivering whatever’s being asked of him. Of 11 race weekends, he’s left only three tracks empty-handed and, factoring in the gearbox issue in Miami, that’s a rather solid return. He’s been consistent, and it’s largely thanks to him that Racing Bulls currently sits fifth in the constructors’ standings.  

Qualifying hasn’t been his strongest suit this year, though. He’s been only marginally ahead in the intra-team battle against his rookie team-mate. The most notable defeat came at Silverstone, where team boss Alan Permane told his drivers that whoever set the better qualifying lap would get the full upgrade package for the next round at Spa – Lawson lost that battle, then had to carry the deficit into Belgium, where he watched Arvid Lindblad enjoy one of his best weekends of the year on the back of the new parts.  

Still, Lawson’s been good enough to remind Red Bull he’s still around and ready – just in case Max Verstappen slips in the shower (or Hadjar, as it turns out...)

Pierre Gasly  

Championship position: 10th  

A- 

While Alpine’s struggles last year didn’t allow Gasly to shine, this season has been a reminder of the driver he really is. When everything runs smoothly, he can deliver some exceptional qualifying laps and race brilliantly.  

His best result on paper is third place in Monaco but, while that was still a great weekend for Gasly – nailing both qualifying and the race – his Japanese GP was even more impressive. At Suzuka he qualified seventh, behind only the Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren drivers, then defended the position in the race, holding off none other than Max Verstappen.  

Consistent and quick through the opening phase of the year, he capitalised on Alpine’s strong out-of-the-box package to bank some good early results. But as the season progresses, scoring points has become harder against ever-improving Racing Bulls and Audi. Gasly himself had a couple of “weekends off”, pointing to a mysterious car issue – but he quickly regained his status as Alpine’s lead driver. 

F1's only rookie of 2026 has impressed so far

Photo by: Erik Junius

Arvid Lindblad 

Championship position: 11th 

B 

It’s been a strong start to an F1 career for Lindblad. He’s certainly quick enough, clever enough, and isn’t shy. The rookie’s aggressive battles against some big names – not afraid to mix it up with the senior Red Bull drivers, either – have caught plenty of attention, particularly in Melbourne: in his very first F1 race, Lindblad briefly ran as high as third and traded blows with Isack Hadjar.

It’s certainly helped that he arrived in F1 right at the moment of a massive regulation change, learning the new machinery at the same pace as everyone else. A predictable, fairly friendly car has also made the adaptation simpler.  

His best result, in Monaco, was largely thanks to a risky strategy call from the team, but he then went on to score points in five more races in a row. Impressive? Sure. That said, he’s still well behind Liam Lawson in the points – and, with all due respect to the Kiwi, that’s not exactly the highest benchmark you could imagine. 

Franco Colapinto 

Championship position: 12th 

C+ 

A far more competitive car than last year’s has clearly been a help – and there’s nothing stopping anyone from declaring Colapinto’s own performance in 2026 a decent improvement on a rather dull spell with Alpine last year.  

An improvement there is, though he’s still more often than not significantly slower than Gasly in qualifying and the race. Count the sprint shootouts, and Colapinto’s only been quicker than Gasly on five occasions. Interestingly, he won those duels in Miami and Canada – both sprint weekends, and the tracks where he delivered his strongest performances. Gasly, on the other hand, was clearly unhappy with the car at both events, shifting the blame onto the team – so it’s unclear whether he was actually hampered by some issue on those weekends.  

It was in Miami and Canada that Colapinto scored 14 of his 19 points so far and, as great as those weekends were, there’s still plenty of room left to improve.   

Bearman scored 17 of his 18 points in the first two rounds, as Haas has been quickly out-developed

Photo by: Lintao Zhang / LAT Images via Getty Images

Ollie Bearman  

Championship position: 13th 

B 

With Haas clearly trailing its rivals in the upgrades battle, the team has gradually slipped lower and lower after a strong start to 2026. It was Bearman who capitalised most on those early opportunities, scoring 17 of his 18 total points in the first two race weekends, in Melbourne and Shanghai – but it’s harder to make an impression once the team’s being outpaced.  

Bearman’s been the stronger of the two Haas drivers, but with a slight caveat, since the team has admitted it hasn’t quite got to the bottom of the issues Esteban Ocon’s been dealing with. That doesn’t take anything away from the job Bearman’s done, though even he’s admitted that comparing the two of them wouldn’t be entirely fair.  

The crash in Japan is the most memorable moment, caught out by a huge speed differential as he tried to pass Franco Colapinto – but it’s hard to pin the blame on Bearman, who clearly didn’t expect a delta anywhere near that size. 

Gabriel Bortoleto  

Championship position: 14th  

B 

With 10 points on the board, Bortoleto is Audi’s best-performing driver, though with the team plagued by so many technical issues, points aren’t the most reliable indicator. Both drivers have been victims of power-unit reliability problems, and each has had to deal with recurring start issues, with Audi one of the last teams on the grid to figure out that part of race weekends. Plenty of opportunities have been missed simply because the drivers drop too many positions right at the start.  

Still, Bortoleto has scored in three races. It was he who opened the team’s account in Melbourne, though he then had to wait until round nine at Silverstone to add to it.  

An unnecessary crash in Q1 in Monaco is one of the rare occasions where it was Bortoleto, not the car, that cost a good result at a track where engine power isn’t so important – but beyond that, the Brazilian’s been a lot more reliable than Audi’s machinery. 

Sainz has been let down by a slow and overweight Williams

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images

Carlos Sainz 

Championship position: 15th  

B- 

This year Williams isn’t really helping its drivers shine. After a very strong end to last season, Sainz isn’t even dreaming of podiums, with his car not only carrying extra weight through the first part of the season but also nursing some inherent performance issues. So his ninth place in China is a genuinely respectable result in what’s effectively the ninth-best car on the grid.  

He then scored more points in Miami, and again in Canada, where he even made it through to the final phase of sprint qualifying. This year, that’s about as good as it gets for Williams.  

In qualifying he’s been consistently ahead of Alex Albon, losing out on only two occasions, and even then by mere thousandths of a second.  

The incident with Oscar Piastri in Hungary deserves a mention: while entertained by a battle with old friend Fernando Alonso, Sainz collided with the Australian – who at the time was fighting for a race win – while being lapped. Suboptimal… 

Alex Albon 

Championship position: 16th  

C 

If there were a prize for unluckiest driver on the grid, Albon would be one of the strongest contenders. Not only is his Williams one of the slowest midfield cars, but constant reliability issues have turned a couple of races into test sessions for him – Japan being the clearest example, where he made six pitstops while using the race purely for set-up work. Similarly, after a loose TV camera forced him back into the pits in Spain, he rejoined the race only to carry on experimenting. A collision with a groundhog in Canada fits neatly into the picture.  

Still, the qualifying gap to Sainz is too big, with Albon on plenty of occasions around half a second off his team-mate.  

The fact that with five points – four of which came in the chaotic Monaco race – he’s just one behind Sainz is more a result of Williams relying on luck rather than performance this year. 

Ocon has endured his toughest F1 season so far

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Esteban Ocon  

Championship position: 17th 

C 

He’s labelled 2026 the most challenging campaign he’s ever endured in F1 – and that’s hard to argue with. Just three of Haas’s 21 total points through the first 11 rounds belong to Ocon. That, he insists, comes down to car “inconsistencies”, something team boss Ayao Komatsu has confirmed.  

While the smallest team on the grid tries to work out why his car lacks performance, Ocon claims it’s only behaved like Ollie Bearman’s on two weekends – but the brutal reality is that whatever’s hampering him is clearly affecting his prospects, with paddock chatter about him losing his Haas seat getting louder by the week.   

Komatsu has done his best to shoot down the rumours, but Haas is plainly using every opportunity its Test of Previous Cars days offer to try out junior drivers. Even if Haas fixes whatever’s wrong with Ocon’s car over the summer break, altering the perception is going to be extremely difficult for the Frenchman. 

Nico Hulkenberg 

Championship position: 18th  

B- 

Two points in the standings, one fifth of team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto’s score, doesn’t really tell you much about Hulkenberg’s season. With Audi starting its F1 adventure, it was always a given that the first year would be a struggle – and the German has experienced that in full. In Melbourne he couldn’t even start the race, and the same happened in the Miami sprint, with a breakdown on the way to the grid ending his afternoon.  

Overall he’s been on par with Bortoleto throughout the season, and lost a couple of good results through no fault of his own. When Audi finally reached a point where it could consistently challenge Racing Bulls and Alpine for points, he was ready for it. The zero only turned into something else in Hungary, the last race before the break – but in reality, that should have happened a lot earlier in the season.  

With Audi improving steadily, the second half of the year promises to be a lot more positive. 

Alonso has been left to waiting for a car he can compete with

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Fernando Alonso 

Championship position: 19th 

B 

Trapped in F1’s worst car on the grid instead of fighting for podiums or wins, which Aston Martin’s ambitions would have you believe were possible, Alonso has spent most of the year simply waiting. Waiting for a better car, which Adrian Newey opted not to improve until Hungary, and waiting for opportunities created by other people’s misfortune. Only in Monaco was there enough chaos to hand him a shot at scoring – and even then he finished 11th on the road, inheriting the point after Sergio Perez’s penalty.  

The opening rounds turned into something of a nightmare, with the Aston Martin’s main contribution to races being providing a reason for safety cars, while its drivers were also left dealing with vibrations delivered courtesy of the Honda power unit.  

His class is still visible in his qualifying performances against Lance Stroll, but it’s genuinely difficult to say whether Alonso, who’s recently turned 45, is still performing at his very best. 

Lance Stroll  

Championship position: 20th  

C

In Montreal, running ahead only of one of the Cadillacs, Stroll gave the biggest hint yet at just how hard it is to find any motivation as an Aston Martin driver this year. When his engineer told him about the gap to the car behind, the Canadian replied that he didn’t really care and was only completing the race for “the mechanics and Lawrence”. There haven’t been many good reasons to keep Lance excited about F1, or his dad’s project, through the early part of 2026.  

There’s not much unexpected about Stroll’s own performances. He continues to lack the pace to match Fernando Alonso in qualifying, but at least won’t finish the year with a complete washout. At Barcelona, he was ahead of his team-mate for the first time since 2024. Then he outqualified the Spaniard again at Silverstone.  

In the races, the picture is much the same. Exactly what you’d expect. 

Bottas has been trailing team-mate Perez at Cadillac

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

Valtteri Bottas 

Championship position: 21st  

C 

It took a lot less than half a season for rumours about Bottas’s future to start swirling. And while he appears unfazed by it, that’s never a good sign. Cadillac bosses were quick to shut the chatter down too, but rumours about a driver’s possible sacking almost never surface around someone performing at the level they should.  

There’s a limited sample to compare his performances against his team-mate, with the car breaking down far too often, but there’s enough to conclude that Bottas is a lot less comfortable driving the MAC-26 than Sergio Perez, with the gap – particularly in qualifying – stretching to around eight tenths a lap. A few errors of his own worsen the impression further.  

With Colton Herta also having a challenging time in F2, it’s probably not entirely justified for Cadillac to think about promoting the American – but if Bottas doesn’t improve in the second half, you wouldn’t blame the team for looking at other options. 

Sergio Perez 

Championship position: 22nd 

B- 

Given how difficult it is to judge Cadillac’s drivers overall, the only real measuring stick is the team-mate. Valtteri Bottas is no Max Verstappen, but he’s still a multiple grand prix winner – so it’s fair to say Perez has enjoyed a pretty successful F1 comeback: it’s the Mexican who’s usually the faster of the Cadillac pair.  

Still, some of the mistakes have been entirely unnecessary. While driving one of F1’s slowest cars, Perez managed to cause a collision with his team-mate in China – and accepting the blame doesn’t make it any better. When Cadillac is desperately trying to gather as much data as possible, risking taking both cars out of contention isn’t worth it.  

Perez’s error in Monaco wasn’t that bad on the face of it, but proved costly. Having failed to park correctly on the grid, he picked up a penalty that effectively robbed Cadillac of its first-ever point. He finished 10th on the road, which was impressive – but pointless (literally) once stewards stripped the result. 

Antonelli is the clear class of the field so far, but can anyone overhaul him?

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Images

Autosport average ratings after 11 rounds 

After every grand prix we rate each driver out of 10 for their weekend performance, with an emphasis on the race. Readers on autosport.com are also able to give their scores and these two graphs show how things have gone so far in 2026. 

The list never entirely tallies with the gradings or season review top 10 because the Driver Ratings provide a snapshot and more information often comes to light later, including car issues. Overall gradings can also take into account more factors, such as the context of the performances. 

Readers’ average ratings after 11 rounds 

Autosport subscribers on autosport.com can give their rating on every Formula 1 driver following each grand prix. Although those scores are averaged to the nearest 0.01 marks online, we have rounded them to the nearest 0.1. 

Reader averages are usually within one point of the Autosport ratings, which are decided before the reader vote is open. The overall lists are similar, with Kimi Antonelli well clear in both. Despite all the cliches about British journalism bias, we have Max Verstappen ahead of Lewis Hamilton. And our readers clearly don’t have much sympathy for the Cadillac drivers! 

The 2026 season resumes in Zandvoort this weekend

Photo by: Gabriele Lanzo / Alessio Morgese / NurPhoto via Getty Images