How it Works
WELCOME TO THE NEW AUTOSPORT WORLD DRIVER RANKINGS
The AUTOSPORT World Driver Rankings is the only genuinely authoritative seeding system for global motorsport.
Every week it accurately analyses driver performance across all the major disciplines, enabling fans to have an objective baseline from which to engage in the ultimate debate: who is the best driver in the world?
The system looks beyond race wins and takes into account every measurable achievement – overtaking moves, fastest laps or stage times, qualifying performances and so on. Each series carries a weighting based on its importance, strength and regularity.
THE DEFINITIVE RANKING SYSTEM
WHAT IS IT?
The rankings draws upon a wealth of statistical information and race results from 41 series spread far across the globe to rate over 2,500 drivers from the world of motorsport every week.
So, if you want to discover who is the world's best performing racing or rally driver, compare one series leader with another, or track the fortunes of up-and-coming talents, this is the perfect resource.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Comparing the performance of drivers in a disparate range of series – from Formula 1, the World Rally Championship and NASCAR to DTM, SuperGT and beyond – requires a precise and objective set of criteria. The system harnesses AUTOSPORT.com's comprehensive historical Forix results database to analyse the performance of every driver across the world’s leading championships and events, then updates the table with over 2,500 drivers as follows:
THE SCORE
Each driver is given a score based on his/her qualifying position and race results from events counting towards the rankings. Additional points are given for fastest laps, leading a race or rally, leading most laps, finishing on a lead lap, positions gained and starting an event.
THE WEIGHTING
AUTOSPORT's team use their expert knowledge to assign a mathematical weighting to each series based on status and competitiveness – for instance, an international race carries more weight than a national one. With series having a varied number of rounds in their championships, that is factored into the final reckoning to keep the calculations scrupulously fair.
Each driver’s score is multiplied by the series’ weighting, then adjusted to a theoretical 20-round series. The result is a rankings points total for every driver.
THE RANKING
Every week, the drivers’ points are added to a rolling total, covering the previous 12 months of competition.
WHY DO IT?
That's simple, it's fun. There are no 100% objective solutions to the argument of who is the greatest driver ever. But there is a sound statistical basis for measuring a drivers' form beyond the constraints of a championship calendar or specific competitive environment – and the AUTOSPORT World Driver Rankings aims to achieve that. Just as it's possible to measure tennis and golf player's form beyond world championships and specific tournaments, it's also possible to chart a driver's purple patch and his lowest ebb.
There's no prizes for winning the AUTOSPORT World Driver Rankings, and it's not officially affiliated to any specific category. It's just an independent resource purely based on statistics and educated seedings. We hope you enjoy it.
WHAT ELSE DOES IT DO?
HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISONS
Which F1 rookie performed better in 2012, Frenchmen Charles Pic or Jean-Eric Vergne? The AUTOSPORT World Driver Rankings’ driver comparison will tell you. Click on a driver to bring up his profile, choose another to compare and the answer is shown in an easy-to-read graph form.
NATIONS RANKINGS
Want to know which nation produces the best drivers? The Nations Rankings adds together the scores from each country’s top two highest drivers in the Rankings and ranks them accordingly.
COMPREHENSIVE DATA
Just want to check a driver's profile, see the latest results on a championship, look up a calendar or even see the latest championship table? It's all there in an easy-to-read format in the data section of the AUTOSPORT World Driver Rankings site.