Edd Straw’s 2024 Australian Grand Prix F1 driver rankings

With a Ferrari 1-2, Red Bull woe, a Mercedes on its side on the final lap and a penalty for a ‘dangerous’ driving for a double champion, the Australian Grand Prix was by far the most eventful of the 2024 Formula 1 races so far.

So who made the best of those circumstances and who contributed to the messiness? Here’s Edd Straw’s judgement on the drivers’ performances and his best-to-worst ranking for the Melbourne weekend.

How do the rankings work?

The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.

It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.

And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall result.

Started: 2nd Finished: 1st

Carlos Sainz oozed class in Australia, something made all the more impressive by the fact he returned to the cockpit just two weeks after an appendectomy.

He showed greater aptitude for extracting the most from the tricky C5 Pirellis than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying and might have grabbed pole position but for a small mid-corner moment in Turn 9/10 that turned into a bigger snap at the exit. His race drive was executed superbly.

Verdict: Outstanding but time on the table in qualifying.

Started: 8th Finished: 7th

Yuki Tsunoda comprehensively outperformed RB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and was the class of the second half of the field throughout the weekend.

He was efficient in qualifying, reaching Q3 for the second time this season with pace Ricciardo didn’t believe was possible, then drove a clean and tidy race with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll ahead never quite within reach.

Verdict: Maximised both qualifying and race result. 

Started: 3rd Finished: 3rd

One of those weekends Lando Norris grew into, gaining good confidence in the nick of time in qualifying to claim a place on the second row after what he called a “turnaround” having battled balance problems.

That laid the foundations for a good, clean race drive. He briefly lost third place to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri after running five laps longer before the first pitstop but Norris would have got back ahead even without team orders intervening. A first podium of 2024 was the reward.

Verdict: Recovered well after practice struggles.

Started: 1st Finished: DNF

This was another one of those weekends where the Red Bull’s weakness in…