(Motorsport-Total.com) – Kimi Antonelli wins ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen: Just like the original result of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, the virtual result of the reader ratings from Motorsport-Total.com reads the same – Antonelli clearly took the day’s victory ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.
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Antonelli received the best grade 1 from the editorial team for his performance over the weekend, as did Formula 1 expert Marc Surer. He praised Antonelli: “How cool he is now driving. Like an old hand!” Only the readers made slight deductions: on average, Antonelli was rated 1.35, resulting in a final grade of 1.12.
For Leclerc, another 1 from Surer was decisive for second place. Surer said: “Charles fought well and got everything out of the Ferrari.” Readers and editorial saw Leclerc’s performance as a 2. All three pillars of the reader rating agreed on Verstappen, who received a 2 everywhere. Surer: “He got the maximum with the Red Bull. But we always expect miracles from him …”
Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto are praised
Directly behind the top 3 were two drivers, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto, who actually finished sixth and eighth in reality. Hadjar (2.00) impressed with a comeback after a penalty – “and he showed in qualifying that he can also do team play,” explained Surer and said about Bortoleto (2.06): “He probably even deserved a 1 with this car.” But he did not get it.
Weak grades were given, among others, to Bortoleto’s teammate Nico Hülkenberg and Antonelli’s teammate George Russell, who both narrowly missed a 4. About Hülkenberg, Surer said: “Audi has no chance in Spa – he said before the race. His teammate proves the opposite.” Readers showed some leniency with an average of 3.54, probably because Hülkenberg’s technology partly did not cooperate.
Also for Russell, technology at least partly prevented a better result. But Surer considered the Mercedes driver “simply too slow” and gave a 4, just like for Hülkenberg and the editorial team. The decisive factor for the final placement here was the reader rating.
In the overall reader rating, Antonelli has further extended his lead. Behind Hamilton, it is tight between Russell and Verstappen for third place. In the top 10, Arvid Lindblad as eighth and Bortoleto as ninth surprise. Hadjar moved up to eleventh place. Hülkenberg currently ranks P17.
Who really shone in Spa – and who didn’t?
How the editorial team discussed the driver ratings after the Belgian Grand Prix is a topic on Tuesday evening from 8:30 pm 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 Belgian Grand Prix and Formula 1.
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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 justify their grades for each of the 22 drivers individually. So that users can hopefully better understand how the driver ratings came about from now on.
Spa: The driver ratings from Marc Surer and the editorial team
By the way: Many users want more transparency from the editorial team in the awarding of grades. That is why we have decided to also publish the individual grades of our editors in a separate table. For the overall editorial grade, which forms the third pillar 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 partly 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 editor grades. When setting the editorial grades, discussions sometimes get heated. The goal is to agree on common driver grades 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. Analogous 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 tenth 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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