Formula 1 has released its 'Power Rankings' for 2021, revealing the top 10 drivers of the season.
The fan vote had 2021 World Champion Max Verstappen at top spot with 8.8 points, 0.4 ahead of Lewis Hamilton. This was almost identical to the expert vote, with the only difference being Verstappen scoring 8.9 points.
However, there are several other differences between the fan and expert votes.
Sergio Perez was voted as the sixth-best driver by the fans, but failed to appear in the experts' top 10. The fans also voted Carlos Sainz as the third-best driver of the year, but he was only sixth in the eyes of the experts.
The tables and scores are below - do you agree with them?
F1 2021 Power Rankings revealed
| Ranking | F1 experts | Points | F1 fans | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verstappen | 8.9 | Verstappen | 8.8 |
| 2 | Hamilton | 8.4 | Hamilton | 8.4 |
| 3 | Norris | 8.2 | Sainz | 7.8 |
| 4 | Leclerc | 7.9 | Gasly | 7.7 |
| 5 | Gasly | 7.7 | Norris | 7.7 |
| 6 | Sainz | 7.7 | Perez | 7.2 |
| 7 | Alonso | 7.4 | Alonso | 7.1 |
| 8 | Russell | 7.3 | Russell | 6.8 |
| 9 | Ocon | 7.0 | Leclerc | 6.8 |
| 10 | Perez | 6.7 | Ocon | 6.6 |
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elramram
As a checo fan, I can only wonder what criteria was followed to leave him out of this prizeless ranking.
Fair opinion
‘Experts’ thought he should’ve done better given his car. Fans thought he was only hired by Red Bull to help Max win the driver’s championship. Which he duly did.
adam-podstavka#26340
Experts did not leave them up - you can see him at #10 rank. We know he is not bad driver, same as Gasly is not - however both have been beaten by Max with huge average margin. I would say Max is much better at adapting to any car (+ he is in the team longer), not that these 2 are so much worse than him. But still this margin has to be considered and #10 with 6.7 score from experts is better evaluation of Checo's 2021 season than 7.2 points score with #6 by the fans.
adam-podstavka#26340
There is a good saying - you're only as good as your last race. And I would say fans have not the best memory. For me this is the only explanation why Sainz and Perez have such high scores by fans - they had an amazing closing race. Sainz had wonky first half of the season. Yes he was good overall, but a whole point out of 10 above Leclerk? Carlos was a bit slower on average than Charles, even in the second half of the season, he was just bit luckier and was taking less risk. When I submitted my ratings, I considered the whole season, and thus it's closer to expert's average from all races rating.