Kevin Magnussen is the highest-rated driver among Autosport readers from the first three Formula 1 races of 2018, with Max Verstappen the lowest.
For this year, Autosport has overhauled our popular driver ratings feature, enabling our Plus members to log their own ratings for each driver after every race.
Magnussen is one of six drivers to boast an average of 8/10 or higher after the first three races of the 2018 campaign, while Verstappen’s troubled start to the season means he is one of three drivers with an average below 5/10.
Rate the drivers and have your say on the Chinese GP
The five drivers joining Magnussen in the elite group are world championship leader Sebastian Vettel, his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, Chinese GP winner Daniel Ricciardo, plus midfield standouts Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg.
Magnussen’s performances across the opening races, which included his heart-breaking retirement from the season opener in Australia (9.3), taking his first top-five finish with Haas in Bahrain (8.8), and salvaging a point despite a compromised strategy in China (8.0) have made him the most consistent performer in the eyes of Autosport readers.
Haas’s standout performance in Australia earned Romain Grosjean an 8.4/10 rating for that race, but scores of 4.3 and 5.1 in Bahrain and China have dropped his average compared to his team-mate down to just 5.9/10.
Vettel’s lowest score this season came from his victory in the season-opener, suggesting it was felt this win owed more to good fortune with the timing of the virtual safety car than the German’s heroics behind the wheel.
Incidents for Verstappen in all three races this year – spinning in Australia, crashing in qualifying and colliding with Lewis Hamilton in the race in Bahrain, going off while trying to pass Hamilton in China and then crashing into Vettel – have resulted in the Dutchman earning an average score of just 4.5/10 so far this season.
That leaves him in a group of just three drivers with averages under five, along with Williams team-mates Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, who are both rated at 4.9/10 by our readers.
Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate Pierre Gasly has the highest individual race rating, earning a 9.9/10 for his fourth place in Bahrain for the Honda-powered Toro Rosso team.
That puts him just ahead of Ricciardo, whose charge to victory in China landed him a 9.8.
Other drivers to have picked up a readers’ average of nine or above for an individual weekend are Magnussen (9.3, Australia), Vettel (9.7, Bahrain), Valtteri Bottas (9.0, China) and Hulkenberg (9.1, China).
Verstappen also has the lowest individual race rating, scoring just 4.0/10 from the Bahrain weekend, while Bottas (Australia), Stroll (Bahrain) and Grosjean (Bahrain) have all registered 4.3/10 ratings.
Autosport readers’ averages so far
| Driver | Average score |
| Kevin Magnussen | 8.7 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 8.5 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 8.2 |
| Fernando Alonso | 8.1 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 8.0 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 8.0 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 7.3 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 7.2 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 6.9 |
| Pierre Gasly | 6.7 |
| Esteban Ocon | 6.5 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 6.5 |
| Carlos Sainz Jr | 6.4 |
| Sergio Perez | 6.2 |
| Charles Leclerc | 5.9 |
| Romain Grosjean | 5.9 |
| Brendon Hartley | 5.4 |
| Lance Stroll | 4.9 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 4.9 |
| Max Verstappen | 4.5 |