Not only has he finally scored points for Williams, finishing P8 in Hungary thanks to some excellent defensive driving, but he’s also crossed the line just outside the top 10 twice, which are strong results considering his machinery.
What’s most important though, is how a driver does on Sundays, and he’s made good progress in that department. At this point, you could make a case for being the best qualifier on the grid after all, few if any have dominated their team-mate as much as he has. Mr Saturday has been as good as ever in qualifying, not only constantly making it out of Q1 before getting himself into Q3 a few times, which is an enormous achievement. It looks all but certain that Russell will be a Mercedes driver by the start of next season, which says a lot about how he’s performed in this one. He did have a poor start to the year and arguably hasn’t quite yet made the team his own like Sergio Perez did before him, but if it keeps improving at the same rate, it won’t be long before he does. He also did the same in Hungary, and while he may have been disqualified, it takes nothing away from what was an excellent drive. His resurgence really kickstarted in Monaco as he finished in P5 after looking good all weekend, and he then did even better a round later in Baku, conquering the chaos to cross the line in P2. Heading into the 2021 season, very few drivers needed a good year more than Vettel, and at the halfway point, he’s had one.Įarly on, fears from 2020 that he was well past his best only grew as he struggled to get to grips with his new machinery, but he’s since done so and hasn’t looked back. We’ve already revealed positions 11-20, and here are who we think are the top 10 drivers of the season so far… With the first half of the 2021 campaign done and dusted, we’ve ranked how we feel each driver has performed in 2021 to date.