After every round of the 2026 F1 world championship, a member of the RacingNews365 team rates each driver's performance out of 10.
A wide variety of factors are taken into account, including qualifying advantage/deficit to their team-mate, how they performed during the race, again relative to their team-mate, and if they dropped any major mistakes through the weekend's action which proved costly. When it is a Sprint weekend, this is also factored into the overall rating given.
With the summer break now in full swing, RacingNews365 has returned to the list to see how the field is performing, with Oscar Piastri an outlier.
The McLaren driver is the only driver to score a podium this season to rate in the bottom half of the field, coming in 12th place overall and is behind four drivers who have not visited the podium yet.
The Australian scored a season-best 9.5 in Japan where he raced to second place in what was actually his first start of the season, following DNS's in Australia and China. For his crash prior to the formation lap in Melbourne, he received a rating of 4.5 - earning some credit back for out-qualifying Lando Norris.
Elsewhere, Lance Stroll ranks at the bottom on a score of 4.9, but this comes with a caveat.
It was decided that the Canadian could not fairly receive a mark for the Australian GP, where he did not take part in qualifying due to Aston Martin's car issues, and then finished 15 laps down after further trouble in the race, which included a lengthy 'retirement' before he re-joined to make laps for the team.
It means he is only scored from 10 rounds and not 11 like every other driver. Piastri's DNS's in Australia and China do translate into scores, as the failure in Australia was his own fault, whilst in Shanghai, he did participate in the Sprint section of the weekend and qualifying, with the reason for his DNS being outside of his control.
Below, check out the 2026 F1 mid-season driver ratings from drivers 22-12, with part two and drivers 11-1 coming tomorrow - Sunday, August 16th.
2026 mid-season driver ratings - 22-12
| Overall rank | Driver | Rating | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | Oscar Piastri | 6.8 | Japan - 9.5 | Australia, Britain - 4.5 |
| 13. | Nico Hulkenberg | 6.3 | Barcelona - 8.5 | Miami - 4 |
| 14. | Franco Colapinto | 6.1 | Miami, Canada - 9 | Japan - 3.5 |
| 15. | Carlos Sainz | 5.9 | China - 8 | Hungary - 3.5 |
| 16. | Oliver Bearman | 5.8 | China - 9 | Japan, Hungary - 3.5 |
| 17. | Fernando Alonso | 5.7 | Monaco - 8 | Barcelona - 3.5 |
| 18. | Esteban Ocon | 5.6 | Japan - 7.5 | China - 4 |
| 19. | Sergio Perez | 5.5 | Monaco - 7.5 | China, Japan, Barcelona, Hungary - 5 |
| 20. | Alex Albon | 5.4 | Miami - 7.5 | Japan - 4 |
| 21. | Valtteri Bottas | 5.3 | China, Belgium - 6.5 | Canada, Barcelona - 4.5 |
| 22. | Lance Stroll * | 4.9 * | Hungary - 6 | Japan, Monaco, Barcelona - 4 |
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