F1 24 Driver Ratings Predictions: Who will be on pole?

The 2024 F1 season is well underway, and with confirmation of this year’s game excitement is starting to build. Among the many questions fans have, one of the biggest is who’ll come out on top when it comes to the F1 24 driver ratings.

Let’s get out the notepad and do some guesswork!

F1 24 driver ratings

Driver ratings in the F1 series are calculated using four metrics. These are Racecraft, Experience, Pace, and Awareness. All of these are combined to create an average overall rating.

Every stat is just as important as the others. Without pace, drivers won't be able to overtake on the straights, even if they have experience and racecraft. A driver with low awareness is also likely to crash out at any point, or crash into you.

The way ratings are worked out could change for F1 24, however we don't expect the system to be altered too much. So who are the winners when it comes to F1 24's driver ratings?

Top stars

When it comes to first place, Max Verstappen will undoubtedly take the title. The three-time world champion exceeded all expectations last year, winning 19 out of 23 races while setting new records along the way.

So the top spot is sorted, but who’s taking the other podium spots?

Fernando Alonso finished F1 23 in second place last year, but we expect his performances to slip away as reality kicks in for Aston Martin. Instead, we’re giving second and third to the Ferrari drivers, with Charles Leclerc taking second and Carlos Sainz third.

After that, it’s a bit of a lottery, but we’d be very surprised if the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri weren’t up there. Lando’s impressive 2023 season was only matched by his Australian teammate, with Piastri having the best rookie season since a certain Lewis Hamilton in 2007.

Speaking of Hamilton, we predict a slight dip for the seven-time champion. The last couple of seasons have not been kind to Mercedes, and we expect that to be reflected in their ratings. Hamilton may just about scrape the top five, but we anticipate George Russell to remain around seventh.

Mid-pack

As we've already stated, we believe George Russell will drop considerably this year. Despite Mercedes finishing second in the constructor's championship, 2023 was a tricky season for Russell, being outmatched by his more experienced teammate.

We also anticipate a significant drop for Sergio Perez this year. Red Bull might be the hot team right now, but too many times last year Perez was forced to rely on his car's speed to make up for a poor qualifying session.

We're also predicting a mid-table position for both Alpine drivers, as well as Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, and Alex Albon.

Backmarkers

There are no rookies on the grid this year, but unfortunately, someone still has to be bottom of the pack. we're giving the wooden spoon to Logan Sargent, with his debut season now exactly showing much promise.

We're also placing both Haas drivers at the bottom, along with Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda, and even Daniel Ricciardo. We've got nothing against the Honey Badger, but with a stop-start season after his return last year, we're waiting to see the best from the Aussie.

So we’ve made our rough predictions, so let’s see how the overall grid will look.

F1 24 driver ratings predictions

The table below shows our predicted F1 24 driver ratings. This is mainly based on the launch ratings for F1 23, with some modifications to reflect the last 12 months.

We’ve also kept personal bias out of the equation, so there’s no surge up the rankings for the Williams drivers. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at our speculative F1 24 driver ratings:

*Ricciardo rating taken from the F1 23 end-of-season ratings.

Do you agree with our predictions? Who comes out on top for you? Let us know in the comments below!

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