Power Rankings adjusts scoring system after Hamiltons missed race last season

The season has started and that means that the Power Rankings are back. It will not be a surprise that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are leading the pack here as well.

How does it work?

As this is the first edition of the season, let's have a brief explanation first. For the Official website of Formula 1, a six-person jury evaluates all drivers after a Grand Prix weekend. The drivers get a grade from one to ten for their performance, without taking their cars into account.

The judges' scores are then averaged over the season to get an overall Power Ranking Leaderboard. Last season Lewis Hamilton won the ranking after changing the rules. Initially, all scores were added together, but because the world champion had to miss a race Max Verstappen was on top. It was then decided to use the average per race instead of the total number of points for the ranking. This season that system will be used again.

Hamilton beats Verstappen

For the world champion, the season couldn't have started better, as the jury gave him a perfect score. " Hamilton executed Mercedes' aggressive strategy to perfection, " the jury judged.

Verstappen is also second here with a nice score of 9.3. "Strategy ultimately played a part in his downfall, while there were also question marks over whether a little more patience would have given Verstappen an easier chance to pass Hamilton than his exhilarating but ultimately fruitless dive around lap 53 on the outside in Turn 4."

Best of the rest

Lando Norris was best of the rest according to the judges. With a score of 9.2, he remains ahead of Charles Leclerc (8.8) and rookie Yuki Tsunoda (8.2) in the top five. Verstappen's brand new teammate Sergio Perez has to settle for eighth in the Power Rankings after a strong catch-up race. Valtteri Bottas, third in the race, is only rated with a 7.3 by the jury in tenth place.