2022 mid-season F1 driver rankings part four: 5-1 · RaceFans

The fourth and final part of the RaceFans mid-season driver rankings covers those who have been the very best performers so far in 2022.

5 – George Russell – Mercedes

Ever since George Russell first cast his signature over the documents that would enshrine him as a Mercedes junior driver, he has likely never stopped dreaming about one day stepping into the cockpit of a Mercedes F1 car as a race driver. But whatever ambitions he may have had when taking over perhaps the most coveted seat on the grid, Russell’s first half-season as a Mercedes works driver would not have turned out like he envisioned.

However, despite the lack of pace from the W13 relative to their rivals ahead, Russell made arguably as strong a first impression as he possibly could have done. For the first nine rounds of the year, he secured an unbroken streak of top five race finishes and entered the summer break 12 points ahead of his team mate – the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time. Surely Russell’s performance across the first 13 races ranks among the very best of the field?

Almost. Because while Russell has proven that Mercedes did not make a poor decision in picking him over another season of Valtteri Bottas for 2022, his head-to-head comparison against Hamilton has no doubt been flattered slightly by how Mercedes have been fighting to catch up to Ferrari and Red Bull ahead. Hamilton was revealed to have been running more experimental parts and settings than Russell in the early races, which may have made his pace next to Hamilton look more superior than it probably was in hindsight.

However, Russell is under no obligation to make concessions for his team mate – he is obliged to drive the car he’s been given as fast as he can. And in that task, he has been very successful. Podiums in Melbourne, Barcelona and Baku saw him rise ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr in the drivers’ standings and he continued to grind away, scoring solid points every weekend without making major errors or getting into unnecessary incidents. He did benefit from fortunate Safety Car timings in Australia and Miami to get ahead of Hamilton, but that’s hardly anything to hold against him.

Once Mercedes got more to grips with their porpoising and extreme bouncing, Hamilton began to out perform Russell more…