POWER RANKINGS: Where do the drivers sit at the halfway stage of the 2026 season?

Formula 1’s 22 drivers have put on quite the show in 2026, with 11 action-packed rounds now behind us. But how do the scores from our Power Rankings judges look at the halfway mark? Here’s the top-10 list as we move through the summer break...

How it works

• Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
• Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)

Kimi Antonelli has barely put a foot wrong in 2026. After an up-and-down rookie campaign with Mercedes, the young Italian appeared to come out of the winter break as a different racer – taking six pole positions and six wins so far to comfortably lead the Drivers’ Championship. There are still things to work on, such as a habit of exceeding track limits, but the raw speed, racing ability and consistency are all there. Can anyone stop him over the second half?

While Max Verstappen sits sixth in the standings, more than 100 points adrift of Antonelli, the four-time World Champion continues to wring the neck out of any car that is given to him. Opportunities early in the season were limited, with Red Bull bedding in their new in-house power unit, and the RB22 lacking all-round performance, but recent updates have brought the team back into contention. Verstappen has delivered what he can at every step, including a run of three podium finishes in the last four Grands Prix.

What a difference a year makes for Lewis Hamilton. After Qualifying for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, the Briton described himself as “useless”, amid a painful first season at Ferrari. It has been a completely different story in 2026, though, with F1’s most successful driver seemingly back to his best via significant changes to his engineering team, a refreshed mindset and a new generation of car. Five podiums from 11 rounds, including a brilliant breakthrough win in Barcelona, leave him second to Antonelli in the title race at the break.

Pierre Gasly has consistently impressed with Alpine this season, scoring points at eight of the 11 rounds held until now – if we include his Sprint result in Miami. Top eight finishes in China, Japan, Canada and Barcelona yielded valuable points for his and the team’s cause, while a podium finish on the streets of Monte-Carlo was an unexpected but well-earned highlight. Alpine have seemingly been caught by some of their midfield rivals at recent races, but that doesn’t take the shine off Gasly’s performances.

Liam Lawson has been another midfield star in his first full season at the same team – namely Racing Bulls. After his stand-in performances, short-lived Red Bull promotion and a rebuilding year at the sister team, the New Zealander has well and truly hit his stride. Ninth in the standings with 43 points is a superb return, including P6 results in Monaco and at Silverstone, and he is showing no signs of slowing down.

“The break probably couldn’t come at a better time,” said George Russell post-race in Hungary, having experienced “a bit of a rollercoaster” over the first 11 rounds. After a dream start with pole and victory in Australia, reliability issues, unusual incidents and at times “driving badly”, in his own words, have all played their part in Russell trailing team mate Antonelli at the midway point. He needs a big second half to overturn a 59-point deficit in the standings.

Arvid Lindblad has slotted in seamlessly at Racing Bulls – and to the F1 world in general. A race winner at F4, F3 and F2 level, the 18-year-old Briton made an early statement with his run to Q3 and the points in Australia, and has kicked on from there. Six successive Grand Prix points finishes from Monaco through to the summer break tell you all you need to know about Red Bull’s latest F1 prospect.

Lando Norris achieved his childhood dream in 2025 by winning the world title. Unfortunately for the Briton, he has not really been in the picture to defend it – his and McLaren’s first victory of F1’s new era coming at the Hungaroring last time out. Nonetheless, Norris is pleased with his own performances, arguing that “I’ve driven better in this half of the season than I probably did to this point last year”, and hopes further updates for the MCL40 after the break can put him in the mix for more race wins.

Charles Leclerc comfortably led the Ferrari intra-team battle last season, but the situation has been flipped on its head in 2026 via Hamilton’s charge and various issues for the Monegasque. Canada, Monaco and Barcelona were particularly challenging, with brake complaints and crashes sending him into a negative spiral. The last few events have been much more encouraging, though, thanks to victory in Britain and a P2 finish in Belgium, which reminded people what he can do when the car is to his liking.

Isack Hadjar is the latest in a long line of Red Bull juniors to be given a chance alongside Verstappen, and the Frenchman could be the driver who finally breaks the senior team’s so-called ‘second seat curse’. While he has not quite reached the heights of his champion team mate, he is proving to be closer over one lap and a consistent, solid points scorer – something that has been missing from his side of the garage in recent years.

Speaking of consistency, this is an area Franco Colapinto has made gains in during his first full F1 season with Alpine. Six points finishes have topped up Alpine’s tally alongside team mate Gasly’s haul, putting them a much more respectable sixth in the Teams’ Championship (which was fifth until Racing Bulls slipped ahead). Should he deliver more of the same from here, and ask a few more questions of Gasly, Colapinto will do his chances of remaining at the squad for another campaign no harm.