{"id":962,"date":"2026-01-06T21:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:02:20","slug":"my-top-20-active-open-wheel-rankings-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/my-top-20-active-open-wheel-rankings-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top 20 Active Open-Wheel Rankings for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I did a top 20 ranking last year<\/a> and figured it’d be fun to do it again for this year. This time I added a little blurb to each ranking to explain my reasoning. My rankings have certainly changed a bit, but some stuff have stayed the same. Such as…<\/p>\n\n\n\n



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1. Max Verstappen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty easy choice. The Red Bull may have not been as bad as folks say, but it was certainly nowhere near the best car of the year and it\u2019s remarkable he was a contender for the championship until the last race and only lost out by two points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Charles Leclerc<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put the Ferrari of 2025 was a tractor. The fact Charles dragged that hunk of junk onto the podium several times is a miracle, and Ferrari should be more grateful for it. As a team they\u2019ve let down their drivers, yet Leclerc has gone above and beyond what is expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Lando Norris<\/strong>

Yes he largely had the best car of the year. Arguably had the most support of the team. He still drove extremely well and is a deserving champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. George Russell<\/strong>

George is an odd one for me. I have to rate him high as I am always surprised by where he qualifies and finishes. The only driver outside of Red Bull and McLaren to get wins and regularly contend for wins\/poles. Underrated by many, possibly even me. If the rumors of Mercedes nailing the next regulations are true\u2026 I see a championship on the horizon for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5. Oscar Piastri<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely dominated the start of the championship, and would be ranked higher than Lando if he kept up that form. Something happened in the later half and he just lost his mojo. Yeah it\u2019s arguable Lando had more support from the team, but he was running the strongest car of the field and a lot of points were lost due to his own actions. His domination for most of the season still carries his stock pretty high for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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6. Alex Palou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another year another dominant championship by Palou. If he didn\u2019t have such a messy divorce with McLaren we might have seen what he could do on the F1 grid. As it is, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s a generational talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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7. Fernando Alonso<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of his horrific luck he\u2019s consistently been the master he\u2019s been for two decades. Hopefully he gets a chance to drive a good car next year with that Newey touch. It\u2019s not likely we\u2019ll see him racing for much longer\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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8. Lewis Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expectations were high, but he has struggled to adapt to the Ferrari. In his defense, the car was an absolute tractor and I don\u2019t fault him for finishing where he has. It\u2019s more that Leclerc has driven beyond what the car deserves that it makes Lewis look worse by comparison. Honestly, I think it\u2019s down to Leclerc just being used to driving garbage and Lewis literally never driving anything that wasn\u2019t capable of winning his entire career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9. Pierre Gasly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet season, but I think he\u2019s overperformed what is expected of him. That Alpine this year has been AWFUL. Quite possibly the worst car\u00a0 on the grid. I don’t think people realize how impressive it was that he managed to get points with it and even manage to qualify well at times. Hopefully next year when they ditch the Renault PU and have a clean sheet design he\u2019ll be able to get better results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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10. Pat O’Ward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the IndyCar grid O\u2019Ward is easily the most flashy and entertaining driver to follow. He\u2019s not quite as smooth and consistent as Palou, which is made more clear by championship finishes, but he\u2019s the guy you watch, as when the stars align he can be brilliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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11. Carlos Sainz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a year for Williams! Both Albon and Sainz have had a fantastic run, Albon actually finishing one position higher than Sainz in the championship, but where Alex was more consistent across the season Sainz simply had the higher highs. Aside from the obvious with the two podiums, there were just more moments of excellence in race craft and pace from Sainz. Not a dramatic amount, but enough to bump him a spot higher in my rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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12. Alexander Albon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said with Sainz, a brilliant year for the Williams team in general and Alex had a great year himself. Consistent and especially strong in the first half of the year. That consistent strength actually pushed him a spot higher in the championship. That form was a bit less in the later half, but still strong and rates him right up there with Carlos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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13. Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering his age and experience he had a very solid rookie year. Flashes of potential and largely kept his nose clean. He was clearly outperformed by George, but we\u2019ll see if that carries into his sophomore year now that he has a year of growth. Certainly seemed a bit stronger at the end of the season compared to the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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14. Isack Hadjar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often the best of the rest, it\u2019s arguable he should be higher on the list\u2026 although Yuki Tsunoda looked similar and to be fair the Racing Bulls car was possibly quite good and has been a more approachable car than the Red Bull. We\u2019ll see how he fairs against the GOAT next year… He\u2019s had enough experience and performed well enough to have a crack at the top. Hopefully it works out better for him than his predecessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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15. Scott Dixon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statistical IndyCar GOAT is still a contender and while he\u2019s largely overshadowed by his teammate in Palou, he still managed to compete at the front. He\u2019s still landing wins decades into his career and while he might not be the lead man for even his team\u2026 he\u2019s still somebody that\u2019s a factor every race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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16. Nico H\u00fclkenberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank GOD he got a podium. Probably the most experienced and well rounded driver in the midfield. And he\u2019s largely outperformed his equipment and teammate across the season even ignoring the podium\u2026 but you can\u2019t ignore the podium. Any long time watcher of Formula 1 was probably near tears seeing him finally get a bit of luck to stand on the podium after coming so close for so many years. A driver whose results do not represent his capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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17. Oliver Bearman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the more impressive rookies of 2025 and finished higher than his much more experienced teammate in the championship! While the Haas was very clearly not the most competitive car, he was often in the mix for points and performed admirably. I look forward to seeing his growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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18. Kyle Kirkwood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outperformed his more experienced teammates. Granted some of it is down to luck and circumstance, at the end of the day results matter and he got em. During a year of dominance from Palou for a period it seemed like he could possibly take the fight to em, being one of the few other drivers to win more than once. Great year for Kirkwood and bodes well for the future of the Andretti team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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19. Esteban Ocon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes he was slightly outperformed by his less experienced teammate, but a lot of that is again down to luck and circumstance. He deserves a spot here though as I recall a few moments of superb defensive driving that would thwart even masters like Alonso. Sometimes occurring when no points were even at play. A warrior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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20. Colton Herta<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there some bias here to include him? Maybe. He had truly astoundingly bad luck though and when you look at the actual pace he was brilliant. Even in a year that he was clearly a bit checked out. When Andretti fumbled hard and basically lost him a victory, his mature reaction was almost as impressive to me as a win would be. I am eagerly looking forward to how he performs in F2 next year and I\u2019m rooting for him and Cadillac!


-K

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did a top 20 ranking last year and figured it’d be fun to do it again for this year. This time I added a little blurb to each ranking to explain my reasoning. My rankings have certainly changed a
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingnowhere.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}