EXCLUSIVE: The Top 10 F1 drivers of 2024 – as chosen by the drivers

Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen has another piece of silverware to add to his bulging trophy cabinet after being voted driver of the year for the fourth time in succession by his peers in our exclusive poll.

In the seventh edition of our Drivers’ Driver of the Year vote, we asked the grid to rate their rivals and rank their top 10 drivers of 2024.

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Drivers can vote for themselves, though interestingly many didn’t and most didn’t put themselves top of the pile. As is always the case, each list is submitted on the proviso it would remain a secret.

Scores were given based on the current F1 points system, with the top driver on each list earning 25 points down to one point for the driver in 10th. Those totals are then combined to create an overall top 10.

Verstappen, who secured the title in Las Vegas with two Grands Prix to go, comfortably won the poll with eight drivers placing him top of their respective lists, and all who took part put him inside their top four.

His Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez dropped out of the top 10 this year, having been ranked 10th in 2023, after a difficult end to the year that yielded just nine points from eight race weekends.

McLaren’s championship runner-up and four-time race winner Lando Norris was voted number two by his peers (up two places on last year), while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (also up two places on 2023) completed the podium to replicate the top three in the drivers’ championship.

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George Russell failed to make the cut in our poll last year, but he upped his game in 2024 in the eyes of his rivals, with the Mercedes driver a new entry at P4.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri scored his first Grand Prix wins this year with triumphs in Hungary and Azerbaijan and was fifth – a rise of three places on last year’s poll.

Carlos Sainz, who is leaving Ferrari for Williams, held steady at sixth in a season where he won more than one race in a single campaign for the first time and ended the year with his highest-ever points total.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was a superb seventh, two places higher than last year, after a brilliant end to the season that included four points finishes in the last five Grands Prix.

The Frenchman edged out Nico Hulkenberg, who is a new entry in P8 after a super consistent season that yielded 10 Grand Prix points finishes.

Fernando Alonso drops six places to ninth but the double world champion’s fine efforts in an Aston Martin that became increasingly uncompetitive earned the plaudits of his rivals.

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Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10, the seven-time world champion finishing eight spots lower than last year in our poll and a career-low seventh in the drivers’ championship.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda earned scores from nine of his rivals as he just missed out on a spot in the top 10 after his strongest season to date.

The drivers who took part in the vote (in alphabetical order) were: Alex Albon, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Charles Leclerc, Kevin Magnussen, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu.