If you’re like us and you play the F1 games, this is one of our favourite times of the year. The driver ratings. Add them to a cauldron with a little bit of spice, and you’ve stirred up quite the controversy. This year, many of the drivers have had a bit of a downgrade, including current F1 champion, Max Verstappen 😳
Last year, EA released the initial ratings just after the Monaco GP but updated them after the summer break to reflect the topsy-turvy season we weren’t quite expecting. But now it seems like many of the driver’s ratings have been dropped, and we can’t help but wonder why.
If you aren’t familiar with the system, the ratings are split into experience, racecraft, awareness and pace, with the results producing an overall score.
Here are their ratings in full, with comparisons to their 2022 overall ratings.
OVERALL RATING: 94
LOST: 1
Our reigning world champion has lost one point compared to last season – despite winning five out of the seven races we’ve had so far and leading the championship but quite a considerable margin. Doesn’t matter too much, he’s still topping the list!
EXP: 84
RAC: 97
AWA: 85
PAC: 95
OVERALL RATING: 89
GAINED: 1
Sergio Perez has had a promotion! He may have only gone up by one, but he has leapt from 7th to 5th on the rating list overall. Considering he’s won two races this season and is Verstappen’s closest rival (though ‘rival’ is pushing it), it’s a decent upgrade for Checo.
EXP: 91
RAC: 93
AWA: 86
PAC: 87
OVERALL RATING: 92
LOST: 2Â
Hamilton’s rating remained unchanged from the launch to the updated standings last year, but for 2023, he has lost two overall rating points. Still second on the list, though.
EXP: 97
RAC: 94
AWA: 94
PAC: 90
OVERALL RATING: 88
LOST: 4
Oooft. EA have done Russell a little dirty here. He’s dropped four points and gone from third overall to eighth. If there’s an update over the summer again, we’re fully expecting some justice for George.
EXP: 76
RAC: 87
AWA: 83
PAC: 91
OVERALL RATING: 89
LOST: 2
Leclerc may have dropped two, but he stays fourth overall (though tied with Sergio Perez and Lando Norris), we hope that Charles can turn his season around and, by the summer break and have his rating raised.
EXP: 77
RAC: 92
AWA: 85
PAC: 90
OVERALL RATING: 88
NO CHANGE
Not a gain, not a loss for Carlos Sainz. He had gained one mark at the end of summer break last season, which could be the reason for his non-change. We’d say this was quite a fair rating.
EXP: 84
RAC: 92
AWA: 81
PAC: 87
OVERALL RATING: 89
LOSS: 1
As mentioned earlier, he’s tied with Charles and Sergio on the overall rating. Not bad, considering he’s pulling everything he can out of a car that’s not particularly… good.
EXP: 76
RAC: 91
AWA: 79
PAC: 91
OVERALL RATING: 74
ROOKIE
Oscar’s first rating. Not bad, the best of the rookies. Though, we do think he was completely hard done by in terms of race craft. Fingers crossed for a summer update!
EXP: 74
RAC: 73
AWA: 79
PAC: 77
OVERALL RATING: 92
GAINED: 3
HUGE GAINS. One of the biggest on the grid, which comes as no surprise considering he’s found himself on the podium for five races out of the seven we’ve had so far.
EXP: 99 (had to be!)
RAC: 91
AWA: 78
PAC: 93
OVERALL RATING: 84
GAINED: 4
Aston Martin are the biggest winners coming from the F123 ratings. Lance has also made a considerable gain in overall rating compared to last year. Though, there are still quite a few drivers ahead of him overall.
EXP: 79
RAC: 91
AWA: 78
PAC: 81
OVERALL RATING: 86
GAINED: 4
Another big gain, EA were very kind to our midfield drivers this year. After the podium in Monaco, completely justified. Racecraft is possibly just a little too high.
EXP: 77
RAC: 92
AWA: 76
PAC: 86
OVERALL RATING: 85
GAINED: 3
We feel this gain is justified since moving to Alpine this season, Gasly has been there or there about and finding himself in the right places. Only one point behind his teammate!
EXP: 78
RAC: 89
AWA: 76
PAC: 85
OVERALL RATING: 87
GAINED: 1
The people over at EA just love Valtteri Bottas. We can’t blame them, to be honest. He is just one point behind George Russell and has gained on last year’s rating despite only having four points to his name so far this season. Hmm.
EXP: 88
RAC: 86
AWA: 97
PAC: 86
OVERALL RATING: 78
GAINED: 3
This is Zhou’s second big gain since his rookie year in F1 last season. In the 2022 summer update, he jumped by five, and now EA has added another three for 2023. Understandably, he’s at the bottom of the ‘experienced’ drivers list.
EXP: 63
RAC: 78
AWA: 74
PAC: 81
OVERALL RATING: 83
GAINED: 7
DING DING DING, WE HAVE A WINNER. Yuki has had a huge promotion and actually finds himself above both Haas drivers. His performance so far this season has been outstanding, and we think he’s really starting to live up to his seat.
EXP: 69
RAC: 79
AWA: 75
PAC: 87
OVERALL RATING: 71
ROOKIE
Another one of our rookies, though we can’t understand why Nyck’s experience is lower than Oscar Piastri’s, considering he’s one F1 race start ahead of him and collected free practice sessions like Thanos collected the infinity stones, but hey.
EXP: 50
RAC: 84
AWA: 75
PAC: 67
OVERALL RATING: 81
NO CHANGE
Kevin Magnussen has remained the same, even from 2022’s original release. Consistently is clearly key.
EXP: 81
RAC: 79
AWA: 85
PAC: 82
OVERALL RATING: 80
Fairly similar to that of his teammates, and we’d agree. Both of them are fairly well-matched.
EXP: 86
RAC: 79
AWA: 81
PAC: 80
OVERALL RATING: 83
GAINED: 1
Alex has pretty much stayed where he was last season in terms of ratings – his pace may come as a surprise to some, but we feel it’s completely justified for the times he manages to pull whatever he can out of his car!
EXP: 75
RAC: 81
AWA: 78
PAC: 86
OVERALL RATING: 71
ROOKIE
They really said, ‘Here’s my homework, just change it a little’ regarding Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries’s ratings.
EXP: 48
RAC: 84
AWA: 75
PAC: 67
What do you make of the F123 ratings? Let us know in the comments!Â
