– Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli further extended his lead in the 2026 Formula 1 overall standings with the Grand Prix win in Miami. However, in the reader ratings of Motorsport-Total.com, the Italian only achieved third place with 1.81 rating points behind Lando Norris (1.62) and surprise man Franco Colapinto (1.79).
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While the approximately 200 voters rated Antonelli best of all drivers with 1.42 rating points, the editorial team and Formula 1 expert Marc Surer made some deductions. Surer said: “For pole position and victory, he deserves a one – but not at all in the sprint.” Because in the sprint, Antonelli lost several positions due to a track limits penalty.
Norris, actually second behind Antonelli in reader popularity (1.87), received a straight one from the editorial team – because he delivered an extremely consistent weekend performance in the McLaren: sprint pole, sprint win, and second place in the Grand Prix. “Only the fourth starting position bothers a bit,” said Surer and noted: “Norris is back!”
Photo series: Miami: The driver ratings from Marc Surer and the editorial team
For Alpine points scorer Colapinto, readers (2.37) and editorial team (2) were quite in agreement in their rating, only Surer gave the top mark and thus decided the final rating. His reasoning: “To have Gasly under control and then bring it home – who would have expected that from him?”
Cadillac scores points in reader ratings for the first time
The first top-10 place in the 2026 reader ratings was further back for Cadillac driver Sergio Perez – also thanks to a good rating from Surer (2), where readers (3.43) and editorial team (3) were more critical. Surer explained, especially with regard to the sprint on Saturday: “At times he really mixed it up.”
At the very bottom this time was Isack Hadjar after his weekend performance was weak compared to Max Verstappen and the crash in the Grand Prix. With 4.58 rating points, the readers were even the most lenient here. Editorial team and Surer each gave a five. Surer said: “The sprint was okay, but after the start from the pit lane he wanted too much.”
However, there were also deductions for Verstappen. According to Surer, the former champion was “refreshingly strong, but two mistakes in one race are too many.” Readers saw Verstappen at 2.30 rating points, editorial team and Surer each at a three.
In the overall standings, Antonelli has now taken over the lead from George Russell. Russell remained pointless in Miami, as did Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Pierre Gasly in the other top-5 positions. The biggest jump was made by Norris, now with 27 points in seventh place. Nico Hülkenberg is in 19th place out of 22 drivers with only one point.
How transparent is driver performance in 2026?
By the way, how the editorial team discussed the driver ratings after the Miami Grand Prix is a topic on (new!) Tuesday evening from 8:30 p.m. in the call-in show “Live bei Scheuren” on the Twitch channel of Formel1.de. Host Kevin Scheuren invites users to join via Zoom personally and chat with him about the Miami Grand Prix and Formula 1.
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Click through: This is how Surer rates the 22 drivers!
How Marc Surer rates the other drivers can be read in detail in an extended photo series. In this photo series, both the Formula 1 expert and the editorial team justify their ratings for each of the 22 drivers individually. So that users can hopefully understand even better from now on how the driver ratings came about.
By the way: Many users want more transparency from the editorial team in the awarding of ratings. That is why we have decided to also publish the individual ratings of our editors in a separate table. For the overall editorial rating, which forms pillar 3 of the system, the editorial team agrees on a common full rating in a conference.
In this conference, which has become a fixed program item for us every Monday morning after Formula 1, things sometimes get heated when different opinions clash. And we collect arguments that speak for or against a better or worse rating.
How we award our ratings
The idea behind our rating system is to evaluate performances over a weekend and especially in the race with ratings (1 = very good, 6 = insufficient). External influences that the drivers cannot control themselves should be excluded. And so that not only the editorial team rates subjectively, as is the case with football magazines, we have created three equal pillars with the readers and the expert.
And this is how we calculate:
From the average rating of Motorsport-Total.com users, the rating by expert Marc Surer, and the rating by our editorial team, we determine the average. Our driver ranking results from this average value. We only display one decimal place, but for the calculation, we use all decimal places. From these partially invisible decimal places, the order of the ranking of two drivers in an apparent rating tie results.
The ratings of the individual editors:
We are often asked how our editorial ratings come about. All editors of our Formula 1 team first give their ratings individually. In an editorial conference on the morning after the Grand Prix, we then exchange views and agree on common editorial ratings, which usually (but not always) reflect the average of the individual editor ratings. When setting the editorial ratings, discussions sometimes get heated. The goal is to agree on common driver ratings with which every editor can come to terms.
Award for Driver of the Year:
Based on the overall ratings of a race weekend, we award points for the 2026 annual ranking. Analogous to the points system in the real Formula 1 World Championship, the winner receives 25 points, the second 18, the third 15 – down to one point for tenth place. There is no bonus point for the fastest lap. At the end of the season, the driver with the most points is awarded the Motorsport-Total.com Award for Driver of the Year 2026.
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