F1 Driver Ratings: Abu Dhabi 2018

Lewis Hamilton finished off the season in style with an 11th win of the year, equalling the most number of wins he has had in a season – the other time being 2014. Sebastian Vettel finished 2nd, just like he did in the drivers’ championship and applauded Hamilton and Mercedes on the success they have had in 2018.

Max Verstappen took 3rd to take five consecutive podiums to finish off his campaign but also denied his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, from taking one final podium in his Red Bull career.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was also the final F1 race for numerous drivers: Fernando Alonso will compete in the World Endurance Championship for Toyota whilst doing other motorsport events including the Indy 500; Marcus Ericsson will do a full IndyCar season with Schmidt Pearson Motorsports; Stoffel Vandoorne heads to Formula E with the new Mercedes team whilst news about what Brendon Hartley and Sergey Sirotkin do in 2019 has yet to emerge.

So then, here’s the final F1 Driver Ratings of the year…

2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit

Lewis Hamilton: 9.5/10

Sebastian Vettel: 8.5/10

Max Verstappen: 8.5/10

Daniel Ricciardo: 8/10

Valtteri Bottas: 4/10

Carlos Sainz: 8/10

Charles Leclerc: 8.5/10

Sergio Perez: 8/10

Romain Grosjean: 8/10

Kevin Magnussen: 7/10

Fernando Alonso: 7/10

Brendon Hartley: 5.5/10

Lance Stroll: 6/10

Stoffel Vandoorne: 6/10

Sergey Sirotkin: 5/10

RETIRED

Pierre Gasly: 7/10

Esteban Ocon: 6.5/10

Marcus Ericsson: 7/10

Kimi Raikkonen: 7.5/10

Nico Hulkenberg: 6.5/10

Hamilton takes the highest score not for the first time this year. He has simply been outstanding. The only thing I can fault him on was a slow start to the season but that’s just because for his standards it wasn’t spectacular. Some of his qualifying laps, Singapore, Silverstone, Melbourne have just been sublime and they will be seen as vintage laps in years to come. He has mastered the way to win a modern F1 race which I will do a separate article on in the coming weeks.

If I was to look at the average driver ratings I have given him (which I really should have done, I’ll keep it in mind for next year), it will be miles ahead of everybody else. He has been on another level and unlike other championship winning years where he has won the championship early, he has kept his foot hard on the gas.

Conversely, it’s Valtteri Bottas who takes the lowest rating from Abu Dhabi. He did well to be just less than 0.2 behind Hamilton in qualifying but his race pace wasn’t even close to his British teammate. A few key errors at the wrong time mean Vettel, Verstappen and Ricciardo were able to pick him off. Something I noticed is that his racecraft is still not up to scratch compared to some of his rivals.

Even after those mistakes, he could have fought much harder and perhaps even hold off his rivals for a bit longer, like Raikkonen did in USA. If you watch when he defended from Verstappen going into turns 11/12/13 he was all the way to the inside and left the door wide open for Verstappen to swoop in to cutback and get him on the exit. He left far too much room and completely compromised his exit.

Compare that to Ricciardo when he was defending from Bottas going into the same area of the track, after overtaking him a few corners before, he wasn’t all the way to the inside, he moved to the middle of the track after Bottas moved to his right to get alongside him. Ricciardo gave himself significantly more space to open up the exit and not let Bottas cutback, like Verstappen did.

Bottas will be under severe pressure in 2019 up against a formidable Hamilton, that said everyone will be because to beat Hamilton and Mercedes will require a special season from someone.

For those of you who have read my driver ratings articles this year, thank you and I hope you don’t think my ratings have been massively off. I will to this again next year with a few tweaks but for now, go and check out all of the other content on Motorsport.Radio.