Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2022 Saudi Arabia GP

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Mick Schumacher (Did Not Start): 6.5/10 *
Obviously it's impossible to give a comprehensive rating to Mick Schumacher, as he didn't take part in Sunday's race after that troubling heavy smash in qualifying. If we were giving ratings to the safety equipment, then that would be a slam dunk ten out of ten. It was so good that Mick was physically well enough to have been able to take part in the race, and it was Haas principal Guenther Steiner who decided to withdraw the entry when it was clear that they would have to try and build up a whole new car overnight. As for Schumacher, he had a slow start to the weekend in FP1 but improved over the ensuing practice sessions. He breezed through the first round of qualifying and was provisionally through to Q3 at the moment that he suffered his accident which seemed to be the result of hitting the kerbs and being thrown wide. All things considered, a solid weekend for Schumacher - for as long as it lasted.

Yuki Tsunoda (Did Not Start): 7/10 *
If it's hard to give a rating to a driver who was ruled out of the race 24 hours before it happened, it's even harder to fairly assess a driver who failed to make it to the grid because of terminal reliability issues, and which had already plagued Yuki Tsunoda's entire weekend. The AlphaTauri made a sprightly bow in FP1 where it was sixth quickest, and was still in the top ten (and quicker than team mate Pierre Gasly) when it came to a juddering halt at the end of FP2, forcing the team to make a slew of overnight engine components changes. He seemed to be up and running again by the time it came to final practice, but then didn't get to turn a lap in qualifying when the gremlins reared up again. And despite more work overnight, the reliability was still emphatically missing when it came to Sunday and he was unable to even make it to the grid.. A shame, as Gasly picked up eighth place in the race and Tsunoda might have been able to do even better ... given a functional car.

* Average over the whole weekend, race not included

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.