(Motorsport-Total.com) – Almost World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli nearly achieved a “straight A” in the reader ratings of Motorsport-Total.com for the 2026 Italian Grand Prix. He just missed it: with 1.05 rating points, he narrowly missed the absolute top score.
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The only drawback: the gravel trap visit in the duel with George Russell for the lead. But Formula 1 expert Marc Surer says: “If you plow through the whole field, a detour is allowed.” He and the editorial team each gave Antonelli a grade of 1. Readers rated him on average with 1.14 – which was clearly enough for first place.
Behind Antonelli, Verstappen was voted second with 1.56 rating points. For Surer, that was also worthy of a 1. He said: “Give Max a somewhat competitive car, and he’s already fighting for the win.” Readers and the editorial team tended to give a slightly worse rating.
How Pierre Gasly earned a 1
The editorial team awarded Pierre Gasly a grade of 1 for his performance in Monza. Surer also considered the top grade. “For pole position, it should be a 1,” said the expert. “The first lap and race pace were rather disappointing.” Therefore, Surer gave a 2, with Gasly finishing third just behind Verstappen with an overall average of 1.61 rating points.
Also noteworthy: Formula 1 rookie Arvin Lindblad received consistently good ratings from readers, Surer, and the editorial team. This placed him fourth in the Monza ranking, ahead of Russell. Surer commented: “That was another flawless job.”
Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc with weak ratings
At the other end of the scale, Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc stood out. Both were penalized for their performances in Monza.
Stroll only avoided last place in the first free practice session. This resulted in an average rating of 4.94 points.
For Leclerc, Surer even gave the only 6 of the weekend. Reason: “No good slipstream in qualifying, and then the crash in the race.” With 5.19 rating points, Leclerc was therefore the bottom of the reader ratings for Monza, although his accident may not have been (only) his fault.
In the overall 2026 reader ratings, Antonelli continues to lead – just like in the actual World Championship standings with a large margin. The second place is more hotly contested than in reality: Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Russell are all within just twelve points. Nico Hülkenberg follows as the only German in 14th place.
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Who really shone in Monza – and who didn’t?
By the way, how the editorial team discussed the driver ratings after the Italian Grand Prix is a topic on Tuesday evening at 8:30 p.m. in the call-in show “Live bei Scheuren” on the Formel1.de Twitch channel. Host Kevin Scheuren invites users to join via Zoom personally and chat with him about the Italian Grand Prix and Formula 1.
Click through: How Surer rates the 22 drivers!
How Marc Surer rates the other drivers can be read in detail in an extended photo gallery. In this photo gallery, both the Formula 1 expert and the editorial team explain their ratings for each of the 22 drivers individually. So users can hopefully better understand how the driver ratings came about from now on.
Monza: The driver ratings from Marc Surer and the editorial team
By the way: Many users want more transparency from the editorial team regarding the awarding of grades. That’s why we decided to also publish the individual grades of our editors in a separate table. For the overall editorial grade, which forms pillar 3 of the system, the editorial team agrees on a common full grade in a conference.
In this conference, which has become a fixed program item for us every Monday morning after Formula 1, things sometimes get heated when different opinions clash. And we collect arguments that speak for or against a better or worse grade.
How we award our grades
The idea behind our grading is to evaluate performances over a weekend and especially in the race with grades (1 = very good, 6 = insufficient). External influences that the drivers cannot control themselves should be excluded. And so that not only the editorial team subjectively evaluates, as is the case with football magazines, we have created three equal pillars with the readers and the expert.
And this is how we calculate:
From the average rating of Motorsport-Total.com users, the rating by expert Marc Surer, and the rating by our editorial team, we determine the average. Our driver ranking results from this average value. We only display one decimal place, but for the calculation, we use all decimal places. These partially invisible decimal places determine the ranking order of two drivers in the event of an apparent rating tie.
The grades of the individual editors:
We are often asked how our editorial grades come about. All editors of our Formula 1 team first give their grades individually. In an editorial conference on the morning after the Grand Prix, we then exchange views and agree on common editorial grades, which usually (but not always) reflect the average of the individual editors’ grades. Sometimes the setting of editorial grades is discussed heatedly. The goal is to agree on common driver ratings that every editor can accept.
Award for Driver of the Year:
Based on the overall grades of a race weekend, we award points for the 2026 annual ranking. Similar to the points system in the real Formula 1 World Championship, the winner receives 25 points, the second 18, the third 15 – down to one point for 10th place. There is no bonus point for the fastest lap. At the end of the season, the driver with the most points is awarded the Motorsport-Total.com Award for Driver of the Year 2026.
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