Edd Straw's 2026 Italian Grand Prix F1 driver rankings

The Italian Grand Prix delivered a lot of action and a particularly memorable home win - though the local crowds also had to contend with the home team tripping up badly.

Those two things cover off the two opposite ends of our driver rankings this week, but what about the rest of the field?

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Started: 19th Finished: 1st

PROS
- Hinted with his Q2 lap and his out-of-sequence no-tow Q3 lap that he had the pace for pole despite not focusing on single-lap pace through the weekend.
- Incisiveness both on the two opening laps (gaining a total of seven places), then in clearing cars to get to Russell, was key to pulling off his unexpected win.
- Showed no sign of the pressure of either the championship situation or being at Monza, where he'd had tough times both in 2024 and 2025, getting to him.

CONS
- There were circumstances that played in his favour, even though he still had to drive superbly to capitalise on them.
- The error in battle when he was caught out by the breaking-up track surface while attacking Russell late on led to a trip through the gravel that could have been more costly, although he recovered well.

Verdict: The difficulty of his mission means the gravel moment doesn't cost him top spot. 

Started: 1st Finished: 7th

PROS
- His execution of qualifying was close to flawless, finding pace as the session progressed, positioning himself well for tows and putting together his best three sectors on the all-important pole lap.
- Drove intelligently in the race, realising that the race pace of the Alpine was such that he was inevitably going to fall behind the big-team cars. That said, he covered Norris for some time, so he did what he could.
- Realistically, top of the midfield in seventh place was the optimum race result.

CONS
- Nothing of any real note - and in the race that's impressive given his team-mate showed what could go wrong if you got overambitious in an Alpine.

Verdict: Backed up his brilliant qualifying with an intelligent race.

Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd

PROS
- Raced intelligently, particularly in the way he forced Antonelli into an error when attempting to hang onto the lead late on.
- Dealt well with the front tyre vibration in the closing stages to minimise the time loss.
- The VSC timing was unfortunate, allowing Antonelli to make a cheap stop and transforming the trajectory of the battle at the front.

CONS
- Should have taken pole position, but a combination of struggling with brake locking and being too close to Max Verstappen on his final Q3 lap contributed to him slipping behind Gasly.
- Appeared to lack Antonelli's edge of pace, although direct comparisons are difficult because of the different approaches to qualifying and race strategy.

Verdict: Better than the narrative that he 'flopped' suggests, but not at Antonelli's level. 

Started: 13th Finished: 13th

PROS
- Produced what he called "mini wins" in qualifying by reaching Q2 and beating Esteban Ocon, by 0.001s, and couldn't have qualified higher.
- Made the most of the cheap virtual safety car pitstop to come through to 13th, making the most of that opportunity to finish higher than a Williams should have done.

CONS
- Despite getting a good launch at the start, he was shuffled back by the end of the lap - albeit only behind quicker cars.

Verdict: After big errors in the last two events, was back on car-maximising form.

Started: 9th Finished: 8th

PROS
- At times, showed impressive pace and appeared to be on top of the car for the most part.
- Eighth was probably the best he could achieve given he never showed the speed to threaten Gasly.
- Drove a good, clean race despite seeming to struggle a little more with ageing hards than Gasly.

CONS
- Q3 was a disappointment, and he apologised over the radio for leaving time on the table - albeit he suggested that was only in the vicinity of a tenth.
- Perhaps over-managed for much of the hard stint, but that was down to instructions from the team so doesn't really count against him.

Verdict: Another Q3 underperformance aside, a good weekend.

Started: 5th Finished: 3rd

PROS
- Third place in the grand prix was the best possible result.
- Hung around the lead battle while he could despite the Red Bull not being as quick, which was not easy given the deployment disadvantage to Mercedes.
- When the car was working as it should, he generally extracted all of the pace from it - and even when there was a problem in qualifying that compromised the rear ride height he made the best of it.
- Considering he was on the back foot after missing FP1, it was a well-worked weekend.

CONS
- Two offs at the first chicane, one at the start of his final Q3 run that meant he lost the tow to the McLarens and another during the race, the main negatives.

Verdict: Got everything he could out of the Red Bull package.

Started: 8th Finished: 4th

PROS
- Drove intelligently in battle, exemplified by out-deploying Piastri to prevail in their battle for fourth on the last lap.
- While the qualifying result was disappointing, there's an asterisk against it in that Piastri's first-chicane error cost him a tow.

CONS
- Wasn't consistent in executing qualifying laps, which contributed to being only eighth on the grid.

Verdict: Marginally the more accomplished McLaren driver despite qualifying disappointment.

Started: 11th Finished: 15th

PROS
- Adapted well to the upgraded aerodynamic package of the Haas, and also benefitted from having the new Ferrari power unit.
- His race pace was good, and his overall result would have been better had the VSC not been deployed just as he passed the pit entry, making a stop impossible.
- Made gains at both starts.

CONS
- Failed to improve on his second Q2 lap, meaning he didn't get the most out of the Haas despite a decent overall result.
- Compromised himself slightly by pushing a little too hard to stay with Yuki Tsunoda - but ultimately he needed to do that to maximise the chance of a point.
- Lost a place to Colapinto when he was jumped at the VSC restart.

Verdict: A strong performance on a track where even the upgraded Haas wasn't a points-scorer.

Started: 4th Finished: 6th

PROS
- Although he struggled with the car more than Leclerc early in the weekend, he recovered well.
- Final Q3 lap, just seven-thousandths off Leclerc, ensured he salvaged a good position from what had been a very difficult qualifying.

CONS
- Had an untidy qualifying, albeit not entirely of his making.
- Turn 1 move on Leclerc was perfectly legitimate, but it put him in a high-risk position for Turn 2 and he paid the price for that. Not the ideal trade-off of risk-versus-reward given how the racing was expected to pan out and it cost him significant ground, albeit with the caveat he might have expected his team-mate to give him the necessary space.
- Cut the first chicane on lap 35, allowing Antonelli past.

Verdict: A patchy weekend, but Ferrari itself played a big part in that.

Started: 10th Finished: 11th

PROS
- Showed good pace in the Audi throughout the weekend at a track that played to the car's weaknesses.
- Realistically, 11th place was probably about where an Audi should finish even though there was perhaps an opportunity to have beaten Tsunoda.
- Passed Nico Hulkenberg in the race to secure lead-Audi honours.

CONS
- A small mistake at Ascari on his final Q2 lap cost him a place in Q3.
- A poor second start cost him, and despite Audi's launch troubles it was significantly worse than Hulkenberg's. Conversely, he had made a better first than Hulkenberg.
- Pace-wise, Tsunoda was beatable to the last point but only if Bortoleto hadn't lost track position at the second start.

Verdict: The stronger Audi driver, but with a few untidy moments.

Started: 22nd (pits) Finished: 14th

PROS
- Power unit component changes mean he was always on the back foot this weekend given he had a grid penalty.
- Couldn't have done much to avoid the front-wing damage sustained on the restart lap - given that was the result of Hulkenberg chopping across him on the run to Turn 1.
- Although comparisons are difficult, Lawson's pace was more than respectable and there's no doubt he would have scored well with a clean race, even from the pitlane start.

CONS
- The circumstances of the weekend in terms of the grid penalty and the front wing damage - which forced a pitstop that disconnected him from the field - meant the opportunities to impress were limited.
- He was given a black-and-white warning flag for squeezing Hulkenberg onto the grass approaching the second chicane, but that came with no associated penalty and was a harsh marginal call anyway.

Verdict: Another decent stand-in performance, even if the results don't show it.

Started: 6th Finished: 5th

PROS
- Drove a clean race and for the most part played his hand well in battle.
- While he has struggled at times with race pace recently, including last time out at Zandvoort, he and Norris were well-matched at Monza.
- First Q3 lap was strong and allowed him to outqualify Norris, albeit partly because of his own error on the second run.

CONS
- Felt he could have prevailed in the last-lap battle with Norris for fourth place, saying "I know what I'd do differently".
- While he was put into a difficult situation and the stewards justifiably concluded he had "no other options available" and "inadvertently" blocked Lawson at the first chicane in Q3, earning himself a three-place grid drop, it has to be considered a very minor negative given there's usually something the driver can do to avoid such outcomes.
- Chicane lock-up on his final Q3 run ruined his final lap.

Verdict: A much-needed weekend of even pace across conditions.

Started: 15th Finished: 10th

PROS
- His Q1 exit was partly down to what he described as technical problems that he battled during Friday and Saturday, so that's a mitigating factor.
- Drove a good, incisive race to climb to take a point.
- Of the three drivers who ran from the restart to the finish on mediums, his pace stood up the best in relative terms.

CONS
- His inexperience with the quirks of the power units troubled him at times and contributed to what went wrong in qualifying.
- While he escaped without penalty for confusing which side of the grid he was restarting on, which the team must take some responsibility for, there remains some jeopardy given Audi's intended appeal.

Verdict: Raced well to salvage a good result from a challenging weekend.

Started: 20th Finished: 17th

PROS
- Played the team game both in qualifying and the race, in the latter case also ensuring Sainz got overtake mode to harvest extra energy.
- Was making a de facto non-stop run on hards work, only to have to make a late precautionary stop because of vibrations.
- His underlying race pace was good despite the disappointing result.

CONS
- Not his fault so it doesn't directly count against him, but power unit component changes and the resulting 20-place grid penalty reduced him to a tow-provider in qualifying and cost the opportunity to show his true single-lap speed.
- Circumstances made it more difficult for him to make an impression.

Verdict: A better weekend than the results suggest.

Started: 14th Finished: 16th

PROS
- Had the dual disadvantages of not having the upgraded Ferrari engine and being the Haas driver to suffer from the aerodynamic problems that seem to blight one car or the other.
- Given the car wasn't working well, his qualifying pace was decent.
- A great first start briefly got him into the points.

CONS
- It's difficult to make a fair evaluation of his pace given the power unit-spec difference and the fact his car wasn't working as it should do aerodynamically.

Verdict: Machinery limited his opportunity to show what he could do, and his ranking has to reflect that.

Started: 17th Finished: 18th

PROS
- Drove a good race to win the Cadillac battle after jumping Bottas at the first start.
- Covered Alonso well in their battle in the first part of the race.

CONS
- Was behind Bottas in qualifying by 0.231s, although there were mitigating factors for that.
- Picked up a five-second penalty for failing to follow the prescribed route in the first chicane run-off area, which didn't affect his position but was needless.

Verdict: Disappointing in qualifying, but more effective in the race.

Started: 16th Finished: 19th

PROS
- Through no fault of his own, lost around 10s in the VSC pitstop as the second car in a double-stack where both stops were slow.
- Had the edge on Perez in qualifying.
- His race pace fundamentally was decent.

CONS
- Lost position to Perez at the first start, although that was largely down to circumstances rather than any major error on his part.
- Falling into blue-flag territory earlier led to him losing more time than Perez.

Verdict: A good weekend, with the 32-second gap to Perez at the finish misleading.

Started: 12th Finished: 12th

PROS
- For the most part drove a good race, including a decent second start, which is no easy thing in an Audi.
- Came through well after making a stop under the VSC, following Bortoleto home.

CONS
- Off at the first chicane allowed Colapinto to pass him during the race.
- Didn't execute qualifying especially well, ending up 0.262s behind his team-mate.
- A brief "sitting duck" phase in the race that he struggled to explain, likely related to deployment, cost him track position and compromised his chance of scoring.

Verdict: A solid weekend, but he was the second-best Audi driver overall.

Started: 7th Finished: 9th

PROS
- At times, he showed good pace.
- Did a superb job at the two starts to turn seventh on the original grid to, all-too-briefly, third place.
- Kept his head down in recovery to salvage a couple of points. His ninth place potentially was only one place worse than he would have been without the mistake - but he was much further back on time than he should have been.

CONS
- Couldn't match Gasly's pace evolution in qualifying, dropping from 0.050s behind in Q1 to 0.323s in Q2, then the final 0.434s.
- Admitted to there being corners that "troubled me" in qualifying, primarily the second chicane and Ascari - where his trend for being more attacking on the brakes and a bit later on the power proved a disadvantage when the energy demands were factored in.
- His Lesmo off was hugely costly, both in terms of positions and the floor damage he sustained.

Verdict: A missed opportunity, although he did at least salvage a reasonable result.

Started: 21st (pits) Finished: DNF

PROS
- Extracted what pace he could from the car, outqualifying Lance Stroll despite having to rely on his first Q1 run thanks to power unit problems intervening.
- Raced well in the early stages to take the fight to the Cadillacs.

CONS
- He took responsibility for a wide moment that gave him damage and led to his retirement because, as he put it, "we were slow and with damage on the car, no point".

Verdict: Did what he could with the Aston Martin, but ranking is hurt given he took responsibility for the damage that led to his retirement.

Started: 18th Finished: DNF

PROS
- Wasn't in any way responsible for his retirement with a hydraulics failure.
- Largely drove cleanly through the weekend.

CONS
- While the 0.072s deficit to Alonso looks decent on paper, that was a clean session compared to his team-mate's curtailed one with the laptime set on scrubbed softs.
- Lost the tow early in the race, which Alonso was able to stay in.

Verdict: Had nothing to work with, but still did less with it than Alonso.

Started: 3rd Finished: DNF

PROS
- Did a better job than Hamilton in qualifying, albeit in the final reckoning only by the narrowest of margins.

CONS
- Parabolica shunt at the end of lap two was a big error, especially given he'd made a similar mistake there in the 2020 race - albeit with the added complication this time of it being during battle.
- While he mentioned the "difference in power delivery" from lap one to lap two as a contributing factor to the crash, that comes with the territory with these power units.
- Given it was his team-mate, could have been more judicious at Turn 2 on the first lap.

Verdict: Quick, but race shunt was a major error.