The championship might be as good as wrapped up, but there are many more ways to rate a season than by title success alone.

Most drivers in any given year will never get a look-in at a race win, never mind the pinnacle achievement. Some are even a perpetual longshot for minor points.

But points alone don’t tell the story of a season. There’s much more to a strong performance than the score on a Sunday night.

These rankings take into account more than just championship position, ranking driver form over the first 12 rounds to date.

Note: all statistics for the top 10 drivers include sprint results. Qualifying results, including pole counts, do not include grid penalties.

1. MAX VERSTAPPEN

Championship: 1st, 314 points

Wins: 12

Poles: 10

Teammate head-to-head, races: 11-3 (points: 314-189)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 12-3

After 12 rounds, including three sprints, the maximum a driver can score is 336 points.

Max Verstappen has scored 314 points, dropping just 22 — less than a race win.

The Dutchman has gone on a winning streak since April, collecting eight straight grand prix victories, one short of the record, plus another two sprint wins.

We’re running out of superlatives for the reigning world champion at this point.

It’s not enough to say the Verstappen’s success is simply down to his class-leading car. If that were true, Sergio Perez would be considerably closer than the terminal 125 points adrift he finds himself after just 12 rounds. Underperformance on the Mexican’s part isn’t enough to talk around that gap.

Fully at one with his car, with the team and with his own potential, this is Max Verstappen in beast mode. It might not make for pretty viewing, but purple patches like this don’t last forever. Appreciate greatness while you can.

2. FERNANDO ALONSO

Championship: 3rd (149 points)

Best finish: 2nd (2)

Best qualifying: 2nd (2)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 10-2 (149-47)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 12-3

Age is just a number, and some of Fernando Alonso’s driving exhibitions this season have ranked among the best of his long F1 career.

Just think about his harrying, edge-of-grip pursuit of his first of six podiums in Bahrain, the very first race.

Arguably more impressive — given his history — is how easily he’s slipped into team-player mode, talking up teammate Lance Stroll and by all accounts working behind the scenes to improve the results of the second car.

One might argue that that’s what it was going to take to get away with obliterating the team owner’s son. He’s outscored Stroll by more that 317 per cent in 12 rounds — the most of any combination bar the Haas teammates, for whom points have been significantly harder to come by.

Even after more than 22 years since his F1 debut, Alonso has proven he still has plenty to give.

3. LEWIS HAMILTON

Championship: 4th (148 points)

Best finish: 2nd (2)

Poles: 1

Teammate head-to-head, races: 8-5 (148-99)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 8-7

There were genuine questions after last year whether the arrival of George Russell was a changing of the guard at Mercedes, the apprentice beating the master of the season.

But Hamilton has turned things back in his favour this year with a consistent, hardworking half-season to put himself well clear in the intrateam fight and reassert his dominance.

Whereas last season Hamilton was focused on troubleshooting the car, this year’s improvements have allowed him to make the most of his opportunities. His points tally is illustrative, putting him only one point behind Alonso despite Mercedes having a more difficult start to the season.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him pinch the position, and depending on whether Pérez’s form revival is consistent, he would fancy his longshot chances for second place too.

4. LANDO NORRIS

Championship: 8th (69 points)

Best finish: 2nd (2)

Best qualifying: 2nd (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 8-5 (69-34)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 12-3

For years Lando Norris has been talked about as a championship-calibre driver, but the Briton’s had few opportunities to prove his potential in an often wayward McLaren — think Daniel Ricciardo beating him to victory in Italy and fumbling the lead in Russia.

But any doubts have been largely blown away by three super-assured performances in Austria, Britain and Hungary.

He was excellent at the Red Bull Ring to secure second. His brief duel with Verstappen in Silverstone was excellent, as was his defensive dice with Hamilton after the safety car restart despite a tyre disadvantage. He was flawless again in Budapest for a second podium in succession.

Despite starting the year in a dog of a car, Norris is ahead of Stroll’s Aston Martin in the championships standings, worthy reward for having made the most of his opportunities so far this year.

5. OSCAR PIASTRI

Championship: 11th (34 points)

Best finish: 2nd (1)

Best qualifying: 2nd (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 5-8 (34-69)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 3-12

The basic head-to-head stats don’t do Piastri’s super-impressive rookie season justice.

On average he’s been just 0.114 seconds slower than Norris when both have been able to be compared — the third-closest margin in the sport behind only the Ferrari and Haas teammates.

That’s significant given his rookie status and Norris’s dominant incumbency at McLaren — enough that both the team and Norris himself have said the young Aussie has been pushing the entire operation forward.

His half-season ended with a very strong weekend in Belgium, where he had a handle on Norris all weekend, outqualifying him twice and scoring his first top-three finish in the sprint. A blameless lap-one crash soured the ultimate result, but there was no doubting the significance of his level of performance.

Piastri has arrived in Formula 1.

6. CHARLES LECLERC

Championship: 5th (99 points)

Best finish: 2nd (2)

Poles: 2

Teammate head-to-head, races: 7-5 (99-92)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 9-6

Charles Leclerc has done his reputation as arguably the sport’s fastest driver no damage this season, being the only driver other Verstappen or Pérez to score more than one pole position in any session.

Yet he’s third in the average qualifying results this season immediately behind teammate Carlos Sainz, 5.20 to 4.87.

While Leclerc’s highs have been excellent, with a handful of front-row starts and three podiums, his lows — admittedly rare — have been frustrating, including a needless first-lap crash in Australia and two bizarre off weekends in Spain and Canada where he failed to make Q3, though he put in an epic recovery to fourth in the latter.

It’s left him unable to put away teammate Sainz and therefore unable to cement himself as Ferrari’s obvious leader.

7. GEORGE RUSSELL

Championship: 6th (99 points)

Best finish: 3rd (1)

Best qualifying: 2nd (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 5-8 (99-148)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 7-8

Russell’s point deficit to Hamilton is a little inflated thanks to two failures to finish — in Australia with an engine failure and in Canada with self-inflicted brake problems — but the gap is best explained by qualifying, where he’s more than 0.4 seconds and more than one place adrift of his teammate.

That’s no great indictment — Hamilton is F1’s most prolific qualifier — and he’s also been subject to the lion’s share of Mercedes’s bad luck this season.

He’ll be disappointed to have returned only one podium to date, and he’ll need a clean run home to ensure he stays out of reach of Norris in the second half of the campaign.

8. CARLOS SAINZ

Championship: 7th (92 points)

Best finish: 3rd (1)

Best qualifying: 2nd (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 5-7 (92-99)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 6-9

Carlos Sainz has taken a step forward from a patchy 2022, and he’s also been the more consistent Ferrari driver. But despite running Leclerc close often, he hasn’t made the most of the car when it’s at his best. His highs haven’t been as high as Leclerc’s.

His Belgian Grand Prix was an extreme example, him being the instigator of a first-lap crash with Piastri that put both out of the race while Leclerc took a comfortable second place. In Azerbaijan Leclerc was a podium contender while Sainz languished behind Russell and then Alonso.

One sprint podium sums it up for him.

9. ALEX ALBON

Championship: 13th (11 points)

Best finish: 7th (1)

Best qualifying: 7th (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 11-0 (11-0)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 15-0

The battle for best among the backmarker changes from week to week, but Alex Albon is constant at or at least near the top of it, with the best average finishing position of any driver in the bottom four teams.

Only four times has he failed to escape Q1. Five times he’s been a top-10 qualifier. His points drivers have been even more impressive, usually requiring him to execute a longshot strategy with precision to squeeze the most from his only occasionally competitive Williams car.

The Thai driver hasn’t so much been reborn at Williams as he has been allowed to show what he was always capable of in an environment that’s fostered his growth.

10. YUKI TSUNODA

Championship: 17th (3 points)

Best finish: 10th (3)

Best qualifying: 8th (1)

Teammate head-to-head, races: 9-4 (3-0)

Teammate head-to-head, qualifying: 11-4

Yuki Tsunoda started 2023 under pressure. Up against a new highly rated teammate and in his third year in the Red Bull junior program, he had to step and prove he could be a team leader or be turfed.

He ended Nyck de Vries’s career in 10 races, mercilessly destroying him despite his dog of a car.

On average the AlphaTauri is closely matched at the very back if the field, separated by just 0.008 seconds across the dry qualifying sessions. The next-quickest car is more than 0.2 seconds per lap faster.

It puts into perspective how impressive his three points are — and the feat of finishing on average behind only Albon among the rearward group of riders.

11. DANIEL RICCIARDO

Ranking Daniel Ricciardo above the following riders is probably unfair; rather it reflects that after only two weekends, he deserves an average ranking. He’s been impressive for someone new to the team having not driven for six months but not so great that he warrants a top-10 place immediately. It’ll be fascinating to see how he goes for the rest of the season.

12. SERGIO PÉREZ

Pérez has enjoyed an upturn in form in the last two rounds, but it’s not enough to prove he’s banished the demons of the preceding months, in which he was one of the grid’s most frustrating drivers. He heads the bottom half of the rankings thanks to his genuinely meritorious victories in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. Who knows if we’ll see that version of Pérez again.

13. ESTEBAN OCON

Esteban Ocon has by no means put new teammate and childhood rival Pierre Gasly away, but he has been consistently ahead, which was the bare minimum for him as the incumbent driver in a team with designs to be regular podium getter in the coming years — and enough to get him onto the podium in Monaco thanks to beautiful qualifying effort.

14. PIERRE GASLY

Perhaps we finally saw Gasly click at Alpine in Belgium, where he took an excellent third place in the sprint. It’s been a long time coming for the well-rated Frenchman, who’s has had more anonymous weekends at his new team than he would’ve liked.

15. LOGAN SARGEANT

Sargeant has shown glimpses of very strong Albon-level pace in the tricky Williams car in his first season, albeit so far without really stringing it together. It’s forgivable for a rookie making his debut in one of the grid’s trickiest cars, but he’ll need some cleaner weekends from here to guarantee an extension.

16. NICO HÜLKENBERG

Many expected little from Nico Hülkenberg after spending the best part of three seasons out of Formula 1 before being called up for Haas, but the German has proved his doubters wrong with a solid half-season in which he’s had a handle on teammate Kevin Magnussen. Haas’s good qualifying pace has played to his strengths, but it’s hard to know how good he’s been on Sundays given his car’s chronic tyre consumption.

17. ZHOU GUANYU

Zhou Guanyu is in another contract year and can’t play the rookie card, but he’s made satisfactory progress alongside the much more experience Valtteri Bottas — so much so that he’s regularly been the better of the two. He’s a likely retention for a third year.

18. VALTTERI BOTTAS

Bottas is capable of more than this. While he’s suffered some episodes of poor luck, this 10-time race winner and 20-time pole getter should be doing more than only just matching sophomore Zhou. He’s arguably not the driver for a team buried so far in the pack, where his weaknesses racing wheel to wheel are exposed.

19. LANCE STROLL

Lance Stroll is scoring just 31.54 per cent of teammate Alonso’s points. If he were scoring at a more representative level, Aston Martin would be a comfortable second in the standings. Instead the team is at risk to dropping to fourth behind Ferrari. No-one expects Alonso-level greatness, but few other drivers would survive this kind of thrashing.

20. KEVIN MAGNUSSEN

Kevin Magnussen has always been a Sunday hustler. Unfortunately for him, the Haas car is absolutely no good on Sundays. Still, there’s only so much talking around him being so well beaten by new teammate Hülkenberg.

21. NYCK DE VRIES

To be fair to De Vries, he was lumbered with one of the grid’s least competitive cars for his rookie campaign and with unrealistic expectations for his performance. Regardless, this Formula E world champion suffered one of the most comprehensive intrateam defeats of any pairing and showed minimum improvement in pace through to his unceremonious axing after 10 grands prix.