The Current Best Driver Depends on How You Measure It

There is no single answer to who the best F1 driver is right now because "best" means different things depending on what you're watching for. If you mean raw speed in may have access to, that's one driver. If you mean consistency over a full season, that might be another. If you mean ability to recover from a bad start or manage tire wear over 50 laps, you could name a third.

What matters is understanding what each top driver does better than the rest, and what the car underneath them is doing to that performance. A driver in a dominant car will look faster than a driver in a midfield car, even if the midfield driver has sharper racecraft. The grid right now has three or four drivers who could legitimately claim the title depending on the metric, and that's what makes the sport interesting.

Key Takeaways

  • The fastest driver in may have access to is not always the driver who wins the most races, because race strategy, tire management, and car reliability matter as much as raw pace.
  • Comparing drivers fairly requires looking at their performance relative to their teammate, not just their finishing position, because car quality varies between teams.
  • A driver's best performance often shows up in difficult conditions—wet weather, damaged cars, or poor starting position—rather than in straightforward races.
  • The identity of the "best" driver shifts year to year and sometimes race to race, which is why F1 fans debate it constantly rather than settling on one name.

Speed in may have access to vs. Consistency in Races

may have access to pace and race pace are not the same skill. In may have access to, a driver has one lap to put together a perfect run with fresh tires and no traffic. In a race, a driver has to manage fuel, tires, and strategy over 50 to 70 laps while other cars are trying to pass or block.

A driver might be fastest in may have access to but lose the race because they couldn't manage their tires to the end, or because the team made a strategy call that didn't work out. Conversely, a driver might may have access to fifth but win the race by making better decisions about when to push and when to conserve. The best drivers are fast in both, but they're fast in different ways. Some drivers are known for extracting maximum pace from a single lap. Others are known for being faster on lap 40 than they were on lap 5.

How to Compare Drivers on the Same Team

The most honest way to judge a driver's actual speed is to look at how they perform against their teammate, because both drivers have the same car, the same pit crew, and the same strategy information. If a driver beats their teammate in may have access to and races consistently, that's a real performance gap.

This matters because a driver in a top team will have more wins and podiums than a driver in a midfield team, even if the midfield driver is faster. The car does a lot of the work. But if you look at teammate comparisons across the grid, you can see which drivers are actually extracting more from their machinery than others. A driver who beats a strong teammate by a tenth of a second per lap is doing something the other driver isn't, and that's where the real skill shows up.

Wet Weather and Damaged Cars Reveal True Skill

The races that separate good drivers from great ones are the ones where something goes wrong. A wet race where visibility is poor and the track is changing lap by lap. A race where a driver has to recover from a bad start or a collision. A race where the car is damaged and handling poorly, and the driver has to adapt their technique to compensate.

In these situations, the car matters less and the driver matters more. A driver who can stay calm, adjust their approach, and still extract pace from a difficult situation is showing you something that doesn't show up in a normal race. Some drivers are known for being exceptional in the wet. Others are known for their ability to recover from a bad day and still score points. These are the moments that separate the drivers who are fast when everything is perfect from the drivers who are fast when nothing is.

The Role of Car Performance and Team Strategy

A driver's finishing position is not the same as a driver's performance. A driver in a car that's one second per lap faster than the competition will win races even if they're not the fastest driver on the grid. A driver in a car that's half a second slower will finish fifth or sixth even if they're driving perfectly.

This is why team strategy matters so much. Two drivers in the same team can have completely different races because of pit stop timing, tire choice, or when the team decides to pit. A driver who gets a good strategy call will look faster than a driver who gets a bad one, even if the second driver drove better. The best drivers are the ones who perform well regardless of strategy, because they adapt and make the most of what they're given. But it's impossible to separate driver skill from car performance just by looking at results.

Consistency Across Different Tracks and Conditions

Some drivers are specialists. They're very fast on street circuits but slower on high-speed tracks, or vice versa. A truly elite driver performs well everywhere—on Monaco's tight corners, on Monza's straights, on Silverstone's fast corners, and on Singapore's night race where heat and humidity wear you down.

Over a full season, consistency matters more than one brilliant performance. A driver who finishes in the points at every race will score more than a driver who wins one race and crashes out of three others. The drivers who are best right now are the ones who show up and perform well week after week, regardless of the track or the weather or what happened the week before. That's harder to do than it sounds, because every track requires a different setup, a different driving style, and a different mental approach.

Why the Answer Changes Throughout the Season

The best driver right now is not the same as the best driver in three months. Teams develop their cars during the season. Some teams make big improvements and suddenly their driver looks faster. Other teams fall behind and their driver's performance looks worse, even though they're driving the same way.

A driver might be fastest in the first half of the season when their car is competitive, then look slower in the second half when another team has caught up or passed them. Or the opposite—a driver might start the season struggling and then look brilliant once their team fixes the car. This is why F1 fans argue about who's best: the answer is genuinely different depending on when you ask the question and what you're measuring.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the car matter compared to the driver?

The car matters a lot—probably 60 to 70 percent of a driver's finishing position comes from car performance. But the remaining 30 to 40 percent is pure driver skill, and that's where the separation between good and great shows up. A great driver in a midfield car will beat a good driver in a top car more often than not.

Can a driver in a bad car ever be considered the best?

Yes, if they're beating their teammate by a large margin and performing well relative to the car's capability. A driver who's extracting 105 percent from a slow car might be driving better than a driver who's extracting 100 percent from a fast car. But they won't win races, so they won't get the recognition.

Why do some drivers look faster in certain seasons?

Because their car got better, or another team's car got worse, or they adapted their driving style to suit the new regulations. A driver's actual speed doesn't change that much year to year, but their results change a lot because the machinery changes. That's why comparing drivers across different seasons is difficult.

Is the driver who wins the championship always the best driver?

Usually, but not always. The championship goes to the driver who scores the most points, which depends on consistency, strategy, reliability, and luck as much as pure speed. A driver in a dominant car can win the championship without being the fastest driver on the grid. But over a full season, the championship winner is usually among the top two or three drivers.

How do you know if a driver is actually improving or just has a better car?

Look at their teammate. If a driver improves relative to their teammate from one season to the next, they're actually improving. If their results improve but their teammate's results improve by the same amount, the car got better, not the driver.