F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2022 Saudi Arabia GP

Nicholas Latifi (Accident, Lap 14): 4/10
This was not a good weekend for Nicholas Latifi. In fact it was probably the Canadian's worse performance in a year or more. After seemingly making decent progress in 2021, he's almost back to where he started in his rookie outings for Williams. While it's fair to say that the FW44 isn't helping and looks a handful, you can't ignore the fact that Alex Albon is doing much better despite being new to the team. Latifi seemed continually caught out by the back end of the car, crashing in qualifying and then in the race itself on Sunday. And that's not to mention the way his season ended last year, when his accident at Abu Dhabi changed the entire course of the championship. It's likely that he's putting himself under too much pressure to show he can fill the gap left by George Russell - but the fact is, he can't and is instead showing that he might have reached the limits of his talent in Formula 1.

Daniel Ricciardo (Retired, Lap 35): 7/10
McLaren hasn't really had enough time to dig into what ailed them so badly in last week's season opener, so we shouldn't expect miracles. At least the MCL36 seemed less afflicted by porpoising even though it remains sub-par in terms of speed. While Ricciardo was 11th in opening practice he was down to 15th in the more representative night time session, and 16th in final practice. In the circumstances he did well to make it through to the second round in qualifying, finishing just one place behind team mate Lando Norris in P12. Unfortunately a three place penalty for impeding Esteban Ocon dropped him back, but he made up a spot on the opening lap despite contact with Guanyu Zhou whose Alfa Romeo had suffered terrible wheel spin off the line. Ricciardo himself made some progress during the race and by lap 35 was up to 11th and within touching distance of points when the car suddenly lost power. Ricciardo had been running ahead of Norris (who went on to finish in seventh) at the time, suggesting that Ricciardo would also probably have been in the top ten if not for the issue. Perhaps not where the team really wants to be, but something of a minor miracle compared to last week.