Like Nasr, he was hamstrung by Sauber’s financial struggles, yet Ericsson managed to outclass his better-rated teammate through the year. Marcus Ericsson was one of the quiet successes of 2016. Season Highlight: Spending much of the Brazilian GP in the points before ending up P12.ġ9. The Frenchman was immediately on-pace with teammate Pascal Wehrlein, beating him 5-3 in races both finished and even flirting with the points on occasion. A good first half-season in F1 by all accounts. Season Highlight: P9 at home in Brazil, albeit aided by a perfect strategy.Įsteban Ocon finally got his long-awaited shot in F1 when Rio Haryanto’s backing fell through, making his debut at Spa. The rebuilding program is now well underway, and Nasr played his part in that by charging to P9 in Brazil to take two crucial points for the team (and the prize money along with it).īut Nasr lost out in the head-to-head battle with teammate Marcus Ericsson in both qualifying and races, making it a disappointing campaign given the buzz around the Brazilian. Times were hard at Sauber through much of 2016, with financial issues limiting any real progress in the early part of the year. Season Highlight: Making it through to Q3 at Monza and Suzuka. Sure, there were unlucky moments, yet misfortune is not enough to explain the 29-0 loss to teammate Romain Grosjean in the points standings. So much promise surrounded Esteban Gutierrez’s return to F1 with the new Haas team after a year away, but it faded into disappointment. Esteban Gutierrez – Haas (re-entry, 17th in 2014) Season Highlight: Nearly reaching Q2 in Baku, finishing 17th.Ģ2. The Indonesian ran highly-rated teammate Pascal Wehrlein close in qualifying, but suffered a whitewash in the races against the Mercedes junior across the garage.

Rio Haryanto may have been the latest pay driver to grace the F1 grid, but he did himself no disservice during his half-season with Manor. Without further ado, here are MST’s rankings for the season. Despite putting in an almighty display on debut in Bahrain, with just one race under his belt, it is impossible to accurately rank the McLaren driver against the rest of the field. There was a definite top five that, in reality, could be ordered a number of other different ways, with each variation having a strong argument in its favor, such were the fine margins between 2016’s outstanding performers.Ģ3 of the 24 drivers who raced in F1 this year have been included in the ranking, with Stoffel Vandoorne being excluded. Following on from the first part of our review of the 2016 Formula 1 season published on Friday, the second feature profiles the entire grid in the driver rankings.ĭeviating from championship order in a bid to try and see who was really the best driver in 2016 is always a challenge, but perhaps more so this year than in previous ones.

2016 f1 season ending video snbc