Who are the smoothest F1 drivers in 2024?
5. Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez is known for being able to save his tyres over a race stint. This is complemented by his relatively smoother driving style. He prefers a more understeery car setup with a strong, grippy rear end.
On the entry of the corner, he usually brakes earlier and turns in earlier to have a settled car in the mid-corner. In the mid-corner he keeps his steering consistent and gradual while modulating the pedals to stay on the grip limit. On the exit, he eases onto the throttle with help from the strong rear end grip. He has a good feel for the grip limit of the front tyres when gradually loading the tyres on corner entry.
This driving style benefits the tyres and is faster than more aggressive drivers during races as it is easier to maintain the front grip limit by being smooth. Overall, by being smooth, Perez loads up the front tyres to the grip limit without scrubbing tyres/speed.
4: Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz is known as being a smooth operator at the wheel. He also prefers a more understeery car setup with a strong, grippy rear end.
On the entry of the corner, he can brake later but still turn in early due to the stability of the rear end. The stable car setup allows him to be more aggressive with carrying speed into the corners, but smooth in the steering movements. He tends to slow down more in the mid-corner phase to induce rotation out of the understeery car setup. On the exit, the stable rear end allows him to accelerate more aggressively while keeping the rear tyres on the grip limit.
Sainz has a good feel for the limit on the entry and mid-corner, usually being smooth on the wheel but aggressive on the pedals. Overall, this style allows him to minimise the scrubbing of tyres while being on the limit of grip.
3. Alex Albon
Alex Albon has said himself that he is a smooth driver. However, he prefers a more oversteery car with a strong front end. This allows him to rotate the car easily without having to induce a lot of rotation, like a driver with an understeery car.
On entry, he has to brake earlier than others, having less rear end stability under braking. In the mid-corner, he can rotate the car more than others due to the strong grippy front end. Taking a V-shaped line, he can rotate the car earlier in the mid-corner but at a slower speed. This would allow the car to have done all the rotation earlier than others, meaning he can accelerate earlier with a straighter exit. While doing this, he is actually benefiting the tyres as well to an extent. By braking earlier, being smooth and demanding less mid-corner rotation with a V-shaped line, the tyres are put under less continuous stress.
Drivers like Sainz and Alonso taking U-shaped lines sometimes struggle with the fronts degrading from sustained stress mid-corner. Overall, Albon’s smooth but sharp style allows him to be kind on the tyres while being fast.
2. Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen is another precise driver with an insane feel for the limit. He is incredibly adaptable, but still prefers an oversteery setup with a strong front end.
On the entry, he brakes relatively earlier than others, and turns in earlier. This allows him to have a more settled car in the mid-corner. His innate feel is seen where he makes almost no corrections to the steering, keeping the car on the limit through pedal modulation. In the mid-corner, he keeps the steering smooth and consistent staying on the grip limit by trailbraking and modulating the throttle on exit.
Overall, when Verstappen’s innate feel for the limit, ability to rotate the car with the pedals and his versatile driving style is put together he is undoubtedly a fast driver. It is not his smoothness that allows him to extract the most out of the car, but his incredible feel for the limit.
1. Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon is a Smooth Understeer driver. He is one of the smoothest drivers on the grid, also being fast in the wet and good at managing tyre wear. Similarly to Russell, he slightly underdrives the car on entry and mid-corner but gets a nicer exit as a result. He brakes earlier than Gasly and settles the car into the corner smoothly.
On entry, he brakes early and turns in smoothly to load the front tyres up to the limit. He tends to have a lower mid-corner and entry speed, taking an earlier apex. Mid-corner, trailbrakes softly, deep into the corner, not upsetting the car at all. He induces rotation primarily with the pedals, keeping his steering extremely consistent and smooth. On exit, he tends to have a higher speed than his teammate, Gasly, as a result of going “slow in fast out”, setting up his exits.
Overall, Ocon is the one of the smoothest if not the smoothest F1 driver on the 2024 grid.