5 worst F1 drivers on the grid this season

We're at the halfway mark of the 2024 F1 season, and already it has been much better than last season, where we only had three different winners throughout the entire season.

Max Verstappen won the bulk of the races, while Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz got their hands on the ones that were left (2 and 1 respectively).

In all of this, the performances of the drivers have also varied.

A few drivers, like Nico Hulkenberg, have been a surprise and are rated very highly, while there are a few others who have seen their stocks take a hit. To evaluate where each driver stands, we've taken the average of the driver ratings after every race and then ranked them accordingly.

After half of the scheduled races have been and gone, which drivers' stocks are the lowest at this stage? Let's take a look.

Ranked: 5 worst F1 drivers of the 2024 season

#5 Valtteri Bottas (Avg rating: 6.00)

At no.5, we have Valtteri Bottas. If we compare the Finnish driver with his teammate, it does appear that he's having a much better season compared to 2023. However, Bottas has also struggled to make any meaningful impact. He's had multiple races where he's been unable to make the most of strong qualifying positions. At this stage, Bottas is in a situation where he has to show he's still got it.

A lack of marquee results has also hampered him tremendously.

#4 Lance Stroll (Avg rating: 5.58)

Lance Stroll's 2024 F1 season can be divided into two parts. The first part was truly woeful when Fernando Alonso was dragging the Aston Martin to results that maybe the car was not capable of.

Stroll, on the other side, was struggling to even score points. Then in the second half, Fernando Alonso's shoulders have seemingly dropped, and Stroll has picked up the pieces. Compared to the start of the season, Stroll has saved face a little in the last few races.

#3 Logan Sargeant (Avg rating: 5.55)

Logan Sargeant predictably finds himself in the bottom five, and one of the biggest reasons behind this is his inability to beat his teammate Alex Albon. Unless and until you can be competitive against your teammate, you're going to struggle to rank highly in these ratings.

In many ways, things have been a bit unfair to Logan in the first half. He's been forced to sit out or drive Albon's damaged chassis at a few races, and that's never nice. Regardless, there's a decent sample size of the driver having similar machinery and not beating his teammate.

At some point, that gets penalized, and his current place in these ratings reflects that.

#2 Sergio Perez (Avg rating: 5.54)

Sergio Perez is very close to a mid-season axe, by the looks of it. If the rather public terms of his exit clause are true, the driver is not going to be in a position where it works out for him in the next couple of races.

Looking at the 2024 F1 season as a whole, it started well for the Mexican as he secured a couple of second-place finishes in the first two races. Things started going south after that as the competition got closer. As a result, we're in a position where Sergio Perez, who was a comfortable P2 in the championship, is now trying his best to keep hold of P6, as both Mercedes drivers snap at his heels.

The driver is the second-worst F1 driver on the grid until now, which is a very disappointing situation for him.

#1 Guanyu Zhou (Avg rating: 5.50)

The worst F1 driver of the season so far has been Zhou Guanyu, who is also seemingly in the last season of his career. This is his third season in the sport, and one would have expected him to start consistently getting the better of his experienced teammate Valtteri Bottas. Unfortunately, that has not happened, and the Chinese driver has struggled tremendously against his Finnish teammate.

It is becoming more and more likely that Zhou is in his last F1 season, as Sauber has already signed Nico Hulkenberg as one of their drivers and is actively looking at options outside of the current pair.