Ranking every F1 driver’s career in Formula 2 as winless ace beats Lando Norris

Follow us on Google Discover

Formula 2 offers the most popular route for young talents aiming to break into F1. On the current grid, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are the most notable names to come through the feeder series.

Granted, it was still known as GP2 when Hamilton won it in 2006, the year before his sensational rookie campaign at McLaren. It was rebranded in 2017, Leclerc’s championship year.

George Russell triumphed the following season, while Oscar Piastri took the title in 2021. Three-time world champion Max Verstappen proves it isn’t an essential step, having jumped straight into F1 from Euro F3.

Fernando Alonso’s arrival predated the establishment of GP2, while Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo all skipped that particular rung on the ladder. While many top drivers have shown their potential in the series, others have never managed to live up to the early hype.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Jolyon Palmer fell off the F1 grid relatively quickly after winning GP2, as did Nyck de Vries. Others, like Fabio Leimer and Davide Valsecchi, didn’t make it at all.

How every F1 driver fared in F2 as Lewis Hamilton edges Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris

It’s difficult to rank drivers across different seasons. First and foremost, the strength of the field will vary from one year to another.

Indeed, 2018 saw Russell, Norris and Alex Albon competing for the F2 title. The Mercedes junior prevailed, but his rivals would likely have been champions themselves in a slightly weaker pack.

What’s more, the points system and weekend structure have changed on numerous occasions over the years. As such, the fairest and simplest metric is the percentage of available points scored.

The table above ranks the 11 F1 drivers who raced in F2/GP2 on this basis. Seven-time world champion Hamilton edges out future teammate Leclerc by a tiny margin, with Piastri third.

2009 champion Nico Hulkenberg is a surprisingly high fourth, ahead of both Russell and Norris. Sergio Perez and Logan Sargeant, both of whom faced the threat of losing their seats in the summer break, prop up the order.

Why Guenther Steiner thinks Nico Hulkenberg could have been a world champion

Hulkenberg’s F1 career, which is now in its final stages, is inescapably a story of what might have been. He established himself as one of the top talents in motorsport when he claimed the 2009 GP2 crown, winning five races and taking 10 podiums to prevail in a field that featured Perez, Romain Grosjean, Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi.

Williams hired him for the 2010 season but dropped him at the end of the year in favour of the heavily backed Pastor Maldonado. He would return to F1 with Force India in 2012, when a collision with Hamilton denied him a shot at victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

12 years later, Hulkenberg still hasn’t scored a podium, let alone won a race. He holds the record for the most race starts without a top-three finish.

Guenther Steiner believes Hulkenberg could have been a world champion if he’d been in a better car at his peak, and had a bit of luck. He’s been one of the standout drivers of 2024 at Haas, scoring 22 of their 27 points.

The 36-year-old, who has had two spells off the grid, is joining the Sauber/Audi project next year. If the German giants make a strong start to life in F1, perhaps he’ll be in a position to snatch a podium before he retires.