Chris
Premium
Having made his way into a struggling team in need of some immediate funds, Rio Haryanto has proven little, if anything, this season that suggests he's worthy of an F1 seat. It's always tough down the back end of the grid, so to take some crumbs of comfort from his time in F1 he was able to out-qualify his highly talented German teammate, Pascal Wehrlein, on four occasions, however outside of that, he's done very little to warrant the retention of that seat. Combined with the fact that his sponsors have failed to hand over enough money, Rio will likely look for work outside of Formula One despite being retained as a reserve driver for Manor.
Felipe Nasr's F1 tenure has so far been one of frustration. After a somewhat competitive first half of 2015, it would seem that very little has changed on the Sauber C35 since the beginning of 2016 and the team have openly admitted to not having brought any upgrades to the car this season since Winter testing. Yes. They are that strapped for cash.
Early season complaints that the car was not working properly have only fueled speculation that Nasr wants out of the Swiss team, and despite a late and slight upswing in form, it's not enough to convince me that Nasr deserves to be higher on this list as he's been fairly consistently out-performed by Marcus Ericsson; a driver that few believe is in F1 on talent alone. Having said that, reliability issues and a team on the verge of bankruptcy is enough to distract most drivers from being able to do their job properly.
In a way, I feel Jolyon Palmer should be rated higher as he has endured an incredibly frustrating season thus far. If he didn't have bad luck then he wouldn't have any luck at all. The Renault works team have arguably been the least reliable of the 11 in F1, however they've have managed to find some additional speed in the final three races before the Summer break. Unfortunately, Palmer was unable to capitalise on a strong race in Budapest, which would have seen him take his first points of the season, with a late spin that saw him relegated from the points.
Car reliability has somewhat muddied the picture when comparing him to Kevin Magnussen, but he's largely been outperformed, especially in qualifying, where's he's received a drubbing at the hands of the Dane.
Marcus Ericsson has been in Formula One for three years now. Did you know that? Don't worry, not many people do. Each year he gets my vote for the "Most Anonymous Driver of the Year Award", because he's probably the least discussed driver in F1. He also gets my vote for the "Joffrey Baratheon Resemblance Award" (Game of Thrones fans reading this will know what I'm on about), but that's a story for another time. But, credit to the young Swedish driver, 2016 has seen him put in some fairly convincing performances by out-qualifying Nasr on six occasions and beating him to the chequered flag on five occasions (when both cars are still running, of course).
Whilst he'd no doubt be wanting to fight further up the grid, two twelfth places in Bahrain and Spain give him enough credit in my eyes to be ranked ahead of his Brazilian teammate, despite Nasr's late upswing in form.
Esteban Gutierrez must be chomping at the bit for the second half of the season to roll around. He's been mightily unlucky to have a big fat zero in the points column considering he's driven very well to finish in 11th place (just outside the points) on four occasions in Spain, Monaco, Austria and most recently in Germany. His teammate was arguably always going to beat him, given that he's one of the more highly rated drivers on the grid in Romain Grosjean, but Gutierrez has to be annoyed that he's put in several strong performances and has nothing to show for it.
Despite having out-driven Grosjean in several races this season, he's been utterly destroyed on Saturdays by the Frenchman and must improve his single lap pace if he's to be considered as a greater threat to more prestigious seats.
Stoffel Vandoorne is not technically a full time F1 driver... Yet. But, his performance in Bahrain when substituting for Fernando Alonso was incredibly impressive. With minimal time in the car, Vandoorne was able to do what neither McLaren driver had done in the season leading up to that race, by taking a solitary point at a track that is billed as a weakness for McLaren-Honda.
Here's hoping he can make his way to a full-time F1 seat in 2017. Formula One needs this young man on the grid as it would only serve to further bolster the best grid, talent wise, in F1 history. Obviously it's too soon to know for sure, but I have a very strong feeling that if Stoffel has a car that is capable of making podiums consistently, then he will be a strong contender for World Champion in the future.
Kevin Magnussen (or "K-Mag" as he's more affectionately referred to as) has had an up and down 2016 season so far despite Renault being confined to the doldrums with poor engine power output and reliability and an even weaker chassis. After being harshly dropped from McLaren at the end of 2014, Magnussen was lucky enough to get a second chance in F1 with the newly entered Renault F1 works team, a chance that few ever get.
Whilst the car hasn't necessarily been up to standard, his drive in Sochi was sublime. Finishing seventh to claim Renault's only points of the season. However, he's been touted as a future superstar in past seasons, it's time for him to step up his game, because even with a lone seventh place, I'm sure the first half of 2016 hasn't been what K-Mag was hoping for.
Boy oh boy. Literally. This poor boy is still in the infancy of his F1 career and yet Daniil Kvyat appears to be on the brink of being spat out by Red Bull's ruthless Young Driver Program and left to pick up the shattered pieces of what remains of his career. He started the season with the big brother team: Red Bull Racing, and a brilliant drive in China saw him take to the podium for the first time in 2016. That was Kvyat at his best: Aggressive, fast and measured.
Since then, it's been nothing but a nose-dive in form and career prospects. He clumsily ran into the back of Sebastian Vettel (former RBR Golden Boy) twice in Sochi which gave Red Bull the excuse they needed to demote him to Toro Rosso only to be replaced by Max Verstappen, the even younger "Wonder Kid". Kvyat would thus remain at Toro Rosso for the rest of the 2016 season and if his performances were any indication of his mental state, things are not looking good. He's been absolutely trashed by his - again, younger - and highly impressive teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr., and on many occasions has looked on the verge of tears in post-session interviews.
Germany however was a turning point for the young Russian. His qualifying performance was the lowest of the low, as he claimed that not even he knew what he needed to do in order to drive faster. But the race saw him finally start to build the slimmest of bases off which to build upon for the remainder of the season. He's got a heck of a lot more base-building to do if he's to remain in F1 in 2017. I truly hope he can rise to the occasion, because Daniil Kvyat deserves on merit, to be in Formula One.
Don't agree with my rankings? Leave your responses below and let us know who you'd have placed in the 16-23 places for 2016!
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