Here are the driver rankings for the 2010 F1 season. The rankings are based off the mathematical model I have used for many other years. They are based on race results, but I have also provided a ranking based on qualifying at the end of the article for comparison.

If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe by email to see when new articles are posted.

1. F1 2010 Season Key Information
2. Uncompetitive New Teams
3. D Tier
4. C Tier
5. B Tier
6. A Tier
7. S Tier
8. Final Results
9. Qualifying Rankings

F1 2010 Season Key Information

2010 is often remembered as a classic, with a title battle between 3 teams and five drivers. Before ranking the drivers, let’s have a quick look at the 2010 season as a whole. The year saw a unique combination of regulations that make it distinct from other seasons. It was:

• The first year without refuelling in the modern era.
• The last year with Bridgestone tyres.
• The last year without DRS, and the only year with the F-Duct.

These added up a season with very little overtaking and minimal strategy variation. Much of the fondness for the season therefore stems from the title battle itself. The momentum swung between Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull across the year. Meanwhile, driver flair ups at Red Bull, team orders at Ferrari and a rivalry at McLaren all provided interesting subplots within the teams.

Uncompetitive New Teams

2010 also oversaw a sea-change in the make up of the grid. It was Renault’s last year in F1 (as a manurfacturer), whilst BMW and Toyota left at the end of 2009. F1 brought in 3 new teams to replace them. All were underprepared, underfunded and uncompetitive. None got close to scoring a point.

A few stats to show how uncompetitive these teams were:

• In Round 1, Chandhok was more than 10s off the lead Q1 pace in qualifying. (His times did subsequently improve a little, as this was his first time in the car.)
• Virgin built a car that was basically unable to reach the flag without running out of fuel.
• Chandhok beat 5 other drivers in the final standings due to two 14th place classifications. For the first of these, he was 5 laps down and in last place. For the second, he actually retired 8 laps from the end. (Bear in mind these were the best results HRT/Virgin achieved!)

All of this means that the driver ratings of the new teams are low in confidence, and often dictated by attrition. In addition, HRT fielded 3 drivers across the year in their 2nd car, meaning each competed in only a few GP.

A few other drivers also do not have much data for the model to compare to the rest of the grid. Heidfeld was drafted in at the tail end of the season. Meanwhile, the Toro Rosso drivers are almost unconnected from the rest of the grid, making a direct comparison difficult. I have given all of these drivers rankings, but bare in mind their scores are only based on a few races.

Right, let’s get to the 2010 driver rankings!

2010 Driver Rankings: D Tier

27-24) Chandhok/Klien/Senna/Yamamoto, 36-39%

I’ve decided by bundle the 4 HRT drivers together. This is due to their similarly poor rankings and lack of confidence in the results. Overall there’s not much to say except all four drivers were at the back of the grid for the entire season. Senna was generally faster than both Chandhok and Yamamoto, but was immediately outqualified by Klien in Singapore. Regardless, none of them managed to achieve a particularly noteworthy result.

The car was fundamentally poor, and Klien and Yamamoto were only given a few races each at the tail end of the season. A lot of their poor results can be attributed to the awful car and lack of driver preparation. However, the results in other years also suggest the drivers were not the strongest either.

2010 Driver Rankings: C Tier

23) Vitali Petrov, 42%

Petrov’s rookie season took a while to really get going. Whilst teammate Kubica was a near constant points scorer, Petrov scored just once in the first 10 races. There were also several rookie mistakes. However, he was able to make the progress expected of him during this period, and scored four further times in the season’s second half.

His infamous defence of 6th place against the faster Ferrari of Alonso during the title decider was a personal season highlight. Whilst he never managed to finish ahead of his highly rated teammate, the team saw enough potential to retain him for another year.

22) Pedro de la Rosa, 46%

De la Rosa’s was an unusual choice for the Sauber team. He hadn’t raced in F1 in the last 3 seasons, and his last permanent F1 drive was in 2002! Whilst the team valued his experience, it counted for little when he suffered from 4 mechanical DNFs in the first 6 races. This included Malaysia, where he didn’t even make the start, and China, where he was on for some healthy points before disaster struck.

Later in the year he had another strong run at Hungary, making it to Q3 and finishing 7th. However, these races were the exception, rather than the rule. He was outscored by rookie teammate Kobayashi, and generally did not meet the teams expectations. With 5 races to go he was dropped for Heidfeld, the driver he had replaced at Sauber at the start of the season.

21) Antonio Liuzzi, 47%

Two points finishes in the first two races was encouraging on paper, but Liuzzi spent the first half of the season adrift of Sutil on pace. Whilst the pace gap between them narrowed as the season progressed, the car became less competitive too, meaning he had fewer opportunities to shine.

Liuzzi took a hard fought 6th place in the rain in Korea, but other than that he was rarely able to make the absolute most of the car. Ultimately his points deficit to Sutil played a role in Force India being beaten by Williams in the championship.

20) Jaime Alguersuari, 52%

The Toro Rosso pair only have a tenuous link to the rest of the grid. The model’s assessment of them both is based on just 9 races that Buemi had partnering Bourdais in 2009. (Who himself only has a single season vs Vettel to compare to in a car whose competitiveness varied wildly.) As such, their rankings should be taken with a pinch of salt. This helps to explain their significantly more encouraging qualifying rankings below. However, their comparisons versus each other are more robust.

What is clear is that in 2010 the Toro Rosso pair were closely matched. Buemi took an early lead before Alguersuari improved as the year progressed. By the end of the season Alguersuari was the faster driver, more often than not. His 9th place in the season finale (where he played a role in Vettel’s championship victory) was a reward for his late season pace, after a bumpy start to the year.

19) Sebastien Buemi, 53%

Just ahead of his teammate, Buemi also had a competent but somewhat underwhelming season. Due to unreliability and first lap incidents, he only reached the flag once in the first 6 races. From then on he had an impressive streak, and even briefly lead in Canada. Despite this, his most iconic moment of the season came in practice, where his wheels flew off the car.

He ended the season as the deserved high scorer for the team (8-5). However, as mentioned above, Buemi’s advantage over his teammate evaporated as the season progressed.

18) Adrian Sutil, 58%

The model considers the Force India car to be a step ahead of Williams, despite finishing below them in the championship. This is due to having a weaker driver lineup. Sutil shone in qualifying, opening his campaign with four consecutive top 10 starts. This included 4th in a wet Malaysian session, which he converted to 5th in the race. He equalled this race result in Belgium, where he again reached Q3.

Overall Sutil’s season stats were positive compared to teammate Liuzzi. In addition, he was more consistent than in previous years, with fewer accidents. However, the model rates Sutil as a (comparatively) weak F1 driver, meaning even his stronger seasons are not considered particularly impressive.

17) Nico Hülkenberg, 58%

Hülkenberg was considered the most promising young talent since Hamilton. He occasionally delivered on this hype, with some superb wet qualifying performances. At the time his 5th in Malaysia was considered exceptional, but it had nothing on his truly phenomenal pole in Brazil. (Amazingly, this is Hülkenberg’s only pole position almost a decade and a half later.)

Towards the end of the year it was often asked why Williams didn’t keep Hülkenberg for 2011, with the implication being that financial factors were more important than driving talent. Whilst this accusation was not without merit, the fact is that over the season Barrichello was faster in both qualifying and race trim. In total Hülkenberg had scored less than a third of the team’s total points. (22-47 in Barrichello’s favour.) For a rookie season this was a perfectly reasonable result, but perhaps suggested that Hülkenberg wasn’t quite the superstar he was billed up to be.

16) Nick Heidfeld, 58%

Heidfeld lost his drive when BMW pulled out of the sport. He was then drafted back into the team for the last 5 races. Two points finishes followed, meaning he’s is ranked higher than the driver he replaced (de la Rosa). Although he finished behind teammate Kobayashi in every comparable race, they were solid results considering his mid-season start.

15) Kamui Kobayashi, 61%

After a couple of spirited Toyota drives at the end of 2009, Kamui was offered a permanent drive with Sauber. The early season featured several errors, including a big crash in Australia after losing his front wing. However, he matured as the season progressed, whilst losing none of his ability to fight. In fact, the year cemented his reputation for bold overtaking moves. He also ended the season as the team’s highest scorer, beating both de la Rosa and Heidfeld on merit. A solid performance for a rookie driver.

2010 Driver Rankings: B Tier

14) Michael Schumacher, 69%

Michael Schumacher returning to the sport for the team that won last year’s championships felt like a match made in heaven. Of course we all know it didn’t quite work out that way.

After finishing the opening race in 6th, just behind his teammate, there was an expectations that it would take a few races for him to reach his peak. Whilst this was arguably the case, it took him much longer than expected to adapt.

Schumacher suffered with tyres issues throughout the year, which were exposed further in the wet conditions that he used to excel in. Overall he was crushed by Rosberg (144-72). Given what we now know about Rosberg’s abilities, Schumacher’s 2010 performance was not as poor as many deemed at the time. Indeed, his poor ranking is partly due to the close nature of the midfield ratings. However, it was still a large climbdown for the (then) most successful driver of all time.

13) Mark Webber, 71%

Webber’s low ranking will surprise some considering he won four races, had five poles and led the championship going into the season finale. Like Schumacher, this is partly due to the incredibly close ratings of drivers above him. However, the model also accounts for the fact that the Red Bull was by far the fastest car. Whilst Vettel’s campaign was blighted by several reliability issues, Webber had a mostly clear run at the title.

There were occasions in the early season where Webber was genuinely quick. At Monaco and Spain he had two straight pole to flag victories, and could reasonably have been considered the title favourite. A further pole followed, which culminated in his famous clash with Vettel in Turkey. However, from this point onwards Vettel almost always had the edge, and the margin between them stretched as the season progressed. In the last six races Webber lost 40 points to Vettel, despite having better reliability.

Across the season, Webber’s self-inflicted DNFs in Valencia and Korea were extremely costly. Scrappy collisions with Hamilton in Australia and Singapore were detrimental too. Finally, his performance in the title decider was famously poor. Whilst other title protagonists had their fair share of errors too, Webber didn’t have the raw pace against Vettel for most of the season to counteract them.

12) Lucas Di Grassi, 71%

Di Grassi’s high rating is a bit of an anomaly, and stems from his competitive race results record vs Timo Glock. (He actually finished ahead of teammate Glock in the championship!) Whilst his results were competitive given his poor car, he was generally slower than Glock. This is reflected in the qualifying rankings below.

As is common with rookies, he showed flashes of pace at times, but made mistakes too. His embarrassing crash on the way to the grid in Suzuka a case in point. Had his Virgin car been more reliable (and/or competitive), it’s unlikely the model would have ranked him so highly. In total there were only 5 races in which both Virgin’s reached the flag, making direct comparisons tricky.

11) Jarno Trulli, 71%

A pole sitter in 2009, Trulli’s career took a significant downward turn due to Toyota pulling out of the sport. His Lotus car was woeful compared to the established teams, but typically a step ahead of the other new cars. Trulli was fairly closely matched with teammate Kovalainen across 2010, but overall came out second best. His season is therefore considered respectable, but lacking the giant killing performances (in both races and qualifying) he may have expected when he signed for the team.

10) Felipe Massa, 72%

Massa started the season strongly, with 2 podiums followed by a further 5 consecutive points finishes. This period was probably his strongest against Alonso in their five years as teammates, despite him missing the end of 2009 due to injury. However, from this point onwards his season unraveled.

Three consecutive scrappy (and pointless) races saw him knocked out of championship contention. The German Grand Prix followed, where he was on course for victory before yielding to Alonso in the latter stages. Without this swap Massa’s ranking would be 1 place higher, but the addition of 7 points does little to change the overall narrative. (Alonso’s position would be unchanged).

However, it is generally accepted that the loss of this win affected Massa psychologically. From then on the gap to Alonso significantly widened, to the point that it was detrimental to Ferrari’s chances in both championships. In Abu Dhabi, for example, he was unable to effectively disrupt Red Bull’s strategies.

9) Timo Glock, 72%

As his teammate was a rookie, Glock’s rating is largely based on his previous performances in F1. As with Trulli, Glock’s career prospects tanked when when Toyota pulled out at the end of 2009 and never recovered. The Virgin car was fundamentally poor. For example, the embarrassingly inadequate fuel tank at the start of the year rarely posed an issue, as the cars horrible reliability meant he rarely reached the races latter stages anyway.

Given all this, Glock had some heroic drives against the odds. More than once he battled with the faster Lotus cars ahead, and he fitted into the role of team leader well. Unfortunately, none of this translated into actual results when compared to his teammate, due to results being largely dictated by attrition.

8) Rubens Barrichello, 73%

Barichello’s switch to Williams from the title winning Brawn was of course a downgrade, but the Brazilian was a consistent threat for points in a midfield car. Whilst his season had fewer heroics than teammate Hülkenberg’s, he was far more consistent and steadily raked up a healthy points advantage. His 18th season in F1 showed little signs of his age, with a millimetre perfect overtake of Schumacher in Hungary. Overall it was a strong season for Barrichello and a reminder of why he deserved to still be on the grid.

7) Heikki Kovalainen, 74%

A surprisingly high ranking for a driver that finished near the bottom of the standings, but Kovalainen always excelled in F1 as an underdog. More often than not he was the leading driver of the new teams. Occasionally he was able to go one better. He the only new team driver to finish a race ahead of a driver from an established team, and he did it twice! He also miraculously reached Q2 twice in a car that shouldn’t have been capable.

Unfortunately, none of these heroics translated to points and, as with every other driver for a new team, his career never recovered.

2010 Driver Rankings: A Tier

6) Robert Kubica, 80%

After BMW folded, Kubica found a new home at Renault. He flattened rookie teammate Petrov, outscoring him 136-27. Kubica also showed some flashes of brilliance, such as Monaco qualifying lap that put him 2nd on the grid. Overall it was a strong year for the Pole, and further evidence that he deserved an opportunity in a top team. However, his underrated drive to 5th in Abu Dhabi was the last time he raced in F1 until his remarkable 2019 comeback.

5) Sebastian Vettel, 80%

Whilst he had not quite reached his peak form shown in 2011 and 2013, Vettel’s 2010 season was a sign of things to come. He was easily the fastest qualifier of the year would surely have wrapped up the title in a much more comfortable manner with a more reliable car. Early race wins in Bahrain and Australia slipped away, before his engine failure in Korea saw him as a championship outsider going into the last 2 races.

However, his season also featured some significant mistakes, colliding with Webber in Turkey and later Button in Spa. An unnecessary penalty in Hungary for leaving too big a gap behind the safety cost a further win. There were also a few races early in the season where Webber was genuinely the quicker driver.

However, once reliability is factored in Vettel was a step ahead of Webber for most of the year. He also remained calm as the season reached its conclusion, staging a remarkable comeback in the second half of the year.

4) Jenson Button, 89%

Button started the season as the reigning world champion. His move to McLaren was a shock, and many were questioning how he would compare against Lewis Hamilton. But his response was near instant. He led the championship after four races, winning twice in mixed conditions.

However, from then the championship gradually slipped away from him. Consecutive 2nd places in Turkey and Canada kept him in the hunt, but both times he was narrowly beaten by teammate Hamilton in straight fights. That ultimately set the tone for most of the season. The only respite came at Monza, which was his only front row start of the year. This was mainly due to a superior set-up, as he realised that a much fatter rear wing than usual was possible, due to McLaren’s efficient F-Duct system.

Button was probably the most consistent championship challenger, with a poor showing in Korea being the only major blot. However, he didn’t quite have the raw pace of Hamilton, despite managing to be a thorn in his teammate’s side on a few occasions.

Button’s ranking can be thought of as an A+ tier, standing clear of Kubica and Vettel below him, but still short of the 3 best drivers of the season.

2010 Driver Rankings: S Tier

3) Lewis Hamilton, 97%

After falling behind Button in the points standings in the first few races, Hamilton gradually asserted himself as the quicker McLaren driver. His season peaked in the middle, with 4 consecutive top 2 finishes (someone no-one else achieved) including 2 wins. At this point he was almost a full race win ahead of Vettel, and nearly two clear of Alonso. Whilst Hamilton’s season was not error free, it was more balanced than his 2008 winning championship campaign, whilst losing none of his raw speed.

On three occasions Hamilton and Button went head-to-head for victory, with Hamilton coming out ahead twice. Unlike the Red Bull drivers, the pair never collided and produced a healthy team relationship throughout. Ultimately in the 14 races both drivers reached the flag, it was 11-3 in Hamilton’s favour. Whilst, the gap between them in races was typically narrow, Hamilton had a larger edge in qualifying.

However, the car’s performance wasn’t quite enough in the second half of the year, and 3 DNFs from 4 races left him as a title outsider.

2) Nico Rosberg, 98%

Rosberg’s first year at Mercedes was an unqualified success. Part of the reason for Rosberg’s strong rating this year is the comparison with an underperforming Schumacher. However, the model does account for the fact that Schumacher spent 3 years out of the sport and was already in his 40s.

Throughout the year he displayed remarkable consistency, finishing outside of the points just once. He also ended the season just 2 points shy of Felipe Massa, who was in a significantly faster Ferrari car that challenged for the title.

Finally, Rosberg is considered to be the best qualifier of the year (see below). In the 4th fastest car, he opened the campaign with 5th, 6th, 2nd and 4th on the gird. Whilst his mid-late season results weren’t quite so impressive, he was still often able to beat at least one of the faster cars. He was also rarely troubled by teammate Schumacher on raw pace.

1) Fernando Alonso, 112%

Whilst 2010 is not seen as one of Alonso’s strongest years, it’s still considered impressive enough to be ranked the top driver. Despite a dream opening win in Bahrain, Alonso suffered from a serious of uncharacteristic errors in the early season. He jumped the start in China, crashed in Monaco qualifying and had a scrappy race at Silverstone. An argument could easily be made that he would have won the title without these mistakes, regardless of the strategic blunder in Abu Dhabi. However, both Webber and Vettel were also rather error prone and no-one ran a totally clean campaign.

By mid-season Alonso was an outsider for the title, almost 50 points adrift of the championship leader. However as the car’s competitiveness improved, so did Alonso’s performances. Going into the season finale he’d achieved 7 podiums in 8 races, including 4 wins. It was the kind of consistency that no other top driver achieved during the season.

Alonso’s weekend in Singapore in particular was phenomenal, qualifying on pole achieving his first ever Grand Slam, having kept Vettel’s faster Red Bull behind for the entire race. It is up there amongst his very best performances. His advantage over teammate Massa also grew as the season progressed. Whilst Alonso had the edge all year. it was a very one sided relationship in the latter stages of the season. It’s this gap that enabled Alonso to be ranked ahead of the drivers below him.

Final Results

Full F1 2010 Driver Ranking:

Qualifying Rankings

A similar model to the one above is used to rank give 2010 driver rankings based on their qualifying results only. You can see the results of the Toro Rosso and Virgin drivers vary significantly. This is most likely caused by a lack of data to compare them to the rest of the grid. However, there are some other notable trends apparent.

Webber’s seasonal qualifying performance is considered much more impressive, as his 13 front row starts were much better than his race results. Similarly Schumacher’s deficit to Rosberg is considered narrower. Remember that, as with race results, the midfield rankings are extremely tight. This means that the rather extreme increase in ranking is actually a more modest gain in actual performance.

In addition to these drivers, qualifying specialists like Sutil and Hülkenberg also see a boost to their ranking. Meanwhile, Button’s qualifying performances are seen as considerably less impressive. This is in line with his career as a whole. (He was nowhere near the best qualifier in 2009, for example.)

rankings	driver	Compared to race ranking
1	Rosberg	↑1
2	Hamilton	↑1
3	Alonso	↓2
4	Kubica	↑2
5	Vettel	↔
6	Webber	↑7
7	Schumacher	↑7
8	Sutil	↑10
9	Buemi	↑8
10	Barrichello	↓2
11	Kovalainen	↓4
12	Button	↓8
13	Alguersuari	↑7
14	Hülkenberg	↑3
15	Trulli	↓4
16	Heidfeld	↔
17	Massa	↓7
18	Liuzzi	↑3
19	Kobayashi	↓3
19	Glock	↓10
20	De La Rosa	↑2
21	Petrov	↑2
22	Di Grassi	↓10
22	Klien	↑2
23	Yamamoto	↓1
24	Senna	↓1
25	Chandhok	↔

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what other seasons you would like driver rankings of.

• Why Is F1 Suddenly Popular in China?
• F1 To Race On The Moon In 2025
• 2010 F1 Driver Rankings
• 2024 F1 Driver Predictions
• How Well Does the First Race Predict the Championship Winner?