2022 F1 Mexican GP: Driver Ratings

It was win no.14 for Max Verstappen at the 2022 F1 Mexican GP as the Red Bull driver put together another dominant weekend while fending off the challenges from Mercedes. The race was not the best in terms of on-track action but the F1 Mexican GP often tends to go that way. There were some impressive performances by the drivers this weekend and some not-so-good ones as well.

How did everyone fare at the 2022 F1 Mexican GP weekend? Let's find out!

2022 F1 Mexican GP: Rating the drivers!

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (Started: 3th, Finished: 2nd)

Rating: 8

In terms of driver skills and performance, the F1 Mexican GP was a good one for Lewis. Was it better than this teammate? Yes. Was it better than Max Verstappen? Sadly, no.

George Russell (Started: 2nd, Finished: 4th)

Rating: 7.5

The qualifying lap should have made everyone stand up and take notice of George Russell's raw speed in an F1 car. The race, however, panned the same as quite a few others have for him lately. It was a solid weekend but once again, a step behind his teammate.

Red Bull

Max Verstappen (Started: 1st, Finished: 1st)

Rating: 10

Win no.14? Check. Pole Position in challenging conditions? Check. Holding his lead while fending off the tow from behind at the start? Check. Completed a dominant display over your arch nemesis? Check.

The 2022 F1 Mexican GP was another example of how you have to achieve perfection to beat the reigning benchmark in F1.

Sergio Perez (Started: 4th, Finished: 3rd)

Rating: 7.5

A P3 is a beautiful result for the Mexican in his home race. You cannot, however, neglect the fact that Sergio Perez was close to 20 seconds behind his teammate when the checkered flag fell. The Mexican once again proved to be an able supporting act for Max Verstappen, sadly you don't win races that way.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc (Started: 7th, Finished: 6th)

Rating: 6

It was an off-color race weekend for Charles Leclerc where, for the first time this season, he looked off the pace. The driver will come home in 6th and lose P2 in the championship to Perez but losing to his teammate Carlos Sainz at the F1 Mexican GP is going to hurt more.

Carlos Sainz (Started: 5th, Finished: 5th)

Rating: 7.5

Ferrari was not in the fight for the podium or a win at the F1 Mexican GP. Sainz did, however, achieve what was the maximum possible from the car in the race.

McLaren

Lando Norris (Started: 8th, Finished: 9th)

Rating: 8

It's not often Lando Norris gets completely outclassed by his teammate in a race. It happened in Mexico as the McLaren driver could only finish P9 in the race. Maybe a better result would have been possible if the driver was not put on hard tires but that's how the cards are dealt sometimes.

Daniel Ricciardo (Started: 11th, Finished: 7th)

Rating: 8.5

There was a tinge of frustration in watching Daniel Ricciardo do Daniel Ricciardo things at the F1 Mexican GP. The strategy was to put Ricciardo on soft tires for the second stint of the race to put him in a situation where he held a second a lap advantage over his teammates. That tangle with Tsunoda was unfortunate but overall, just for the romanticism of it, watching Ricciardo happy made the paddock a fun place yet again.

Alpine

Fernando Alonso (Started: 9th, Finished: DNF)

Rating: 9

Alonso has every right to be angry and disappointed at another PU failure but there's one thing he might need to understand. With Alpine, he's still able to show what kind of a beast he is behind the wheel. There was certainly a bit of a heartache watching another DNF for Alonso but that does not change the fact that the Spaniard is an absolute elite in the sport even at his age.

Esteban Ocon (Started: 10th, Finished: 8th)

Rating: 8.5

Ocon messed up his final qualifying lap but made up for it with quite an impressive race. His overtakes on Zhou and Bottas were not only opportunistic but also a sign of a driver that has grown in the shadow of Alonso. Was his F1 Mexican GP weekend as impressive as Alonso's? No, but it was still very good.

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly (Started: 14th, Finished: 11th)

Rating: 7.5

Gasly might be itching to get his hands on the Alpine with the way that the car has been heading the midfield. Having said that, he might need to stop punting cars off the track and gain an advantage doing that. It was a dogged drive from Gasly, helped by the soft tire stint in the end.

Yuki Tsunoda (Started: 13th, Finished: DNF)

Rating: 7

It was an impressive weekend for Yuki until Ricciardo decided to take his position in any way possible. The Japanese driver will be worth keeping an eye on next season.

Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel (Started: 16th, Finished: 14th)

Rating: 7

Better than his teammate was the only thing you could say about Sebastian Vettel's race on an F1 Mexican GP weekend where Aston Martin was completely off the rails.

Lance Stroll (Started: 20th, Finished: 15th)

Rating: 6

On a weekend where Aston Martin's setup was just not resonating with the track, the only highlight of Lance Stroll's weekend was him getting punted off the track by Pierre Gasly.

Alfa Romeo

Valtteri Bottas (Started: 6th, Finished: 10th)

Rating: 7.5

Valtteri Bottas is very impressive on a single lap. He is so impressive that he can outqualify a Ferrari on his day. He also struggles with racecraft and can be caught napping by a young French charger on his first lap out of the pits. Points should feel good for Bottas but a P10 after starting P6 should not.

Guanyu Zhou (Started: 12th, Finished: 13th)

Rating: 5

Zhou was badly upstaged by his teammate this weekend and for all intents and purposes, this was another case of the Chinese driver not making the most of the machinery given to him.

Haas F1

Kevin Magnussen (Started: 19th, Finished: 17th)

Rating: 5

It's hard to make an impression when you have the slowest car on the grid. This was the predicament Kevin Magnussen faced in the 2022 F1 Mexican GP and there was even a moment where the Danish driver was overtaken by Latifi as well. A weekend to forget for the team and the driver.

Mick Schumacher (Started: 15th, Finished: 16th)

Rating: 5.5

Mick Schumacher did the best he could in a car that was just woefully off the pace all weekend. A P15 result isn't much and by the looks of it, the debate about his future might continue until the end of the season.

Williams

Alex Albon (Started: 17th, Finished: 12th)

Rating: 8

Another very impressive weekend for Alex Albon, who has made a compelling argument once again that Williams needs a better second driver to back him up and score more points.

Nicholas Latifi (Started: 18th, Finished: 18th)

Rating: 3

After the 2022 F1 Mexican GP, now Latifi has 2 more races left in F1. The likable driver has clearly proved that he lacks those final few tenths needed to be an F1 driver. The race in Mexico was proof of that.

About the author

Charanjot is an F1 writer and Content Specialist at Sportskeeda with over 5 years of experience covering news, trends, and analyses related to the sport.

He started watching F1 when Narain Karthikeyan made his F1 debut in 2005 and was hooked when Kimi Raikkonen delivered a stunning lap in Monaco in the same season. He has been with the firm for almost 4 years and tries his best to put his links in the F1 paddock to the best use so as to report relevant and accurate information.

Charanjot has interviewed Indian motorsports driver Kush Maini during his time with Sportskeeda. He has also written 4K+ articles on the sport and is the key factor behind all the F1-related content that goes out in the domain.

If given a chance, he would like for India’s Buddh International Circuit to be added back to the calendar. A Mechanical engineer and an MBA, Charanjot aims to spearhead the cause of making F1 a mainstream sport in India. Apart from F1, he also follows MotoGP, cricket and MMA.

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Edited by Madhur Dave