Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 Belgian GP

George Russell, Mercedes (DSQ): 9.5/10
The post-race disqualification has no effect on our analysis of George Russell's excellent performance on Sunday, which was quite outstanding. The one-stop strategy was a masterstroke: whoever gets the credit for it doesn't matter, it was still Russell that had to make it work and fight to the bitter end to stay in the lead in those agonising final laps. Prior to that it had been Lewis Hamilton who had enjoyed the upper hand in Spa but once again Russell proved his worth to Mercedes and cemented his claim as Mercedes team leader in 2025 whoever his new team mate turns out to be. Just what happened to that missing 1.5kg remains to be seen, but you wouldn't blame Russell for comfort eating over the summer break and arriving in Zandvoort with the extra weight already on board, just to be certain. If a job needs doing, do it yourself, right?

Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (Hydraulics, Lap 5): 4.5/10
It was pretty much situation normal at Sauber, which is to say they were no where. Literally in Zhou Guanyu's case when it came to Sunday when the car developed a hydraulic fault almost at once, making him the first and only retirement of the afternoon. Prior to that Zhou had been among the slowest drivers in practice and qualifying, and would have started at the back if not for Yuki Tsunoda's grid penalty for engine components trumping his own for impeding Max Verstappen in Q1. It must be hard for Zhou and the Sauber squad to even bother showing up when every week is like this.

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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.