Esteban Ocon has the biggest improvement vs qualifying in F1 2026: +3.75. Behind the leader come Sergio Pérez (Cadillac F1 Team, +3.67), Liam Lawson (Red Bull, +3.33), Alexander Albon (Williams, +3.33) and Oliver Bearman (Haas F1 Team, +3.00). First to fifth is separated by 0.75. Average places recovered on Sunday relative to Saturday's qualifying position.
The Dutch Grand Prix rewrote the top of the table: Esteban Ocon climbed 1 place into first. Nobody has pushed harder over the last three rounds than Isack Hadjar (Red Bull): +4, +2 across the Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix — comfortably clear of the level set over the rest of the season. Going the other way, Liam Lawson (Red Bull) has given up the most ground: -1, +1 across the Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix, below the standard set earlier in the year.
So why is this ranking worth your time? Because it is exactly the kind of question every fan argues about and almost nobody actually counts. This one is counted: 19 drivers and 12 races of the F1 2026 season, built race by race from the official classifications. No votes, no opinions, no cherry-picked highlights — if a driver moves here, something real happened on track. And it recomputes itself after every Grand Prix, so the next time the argument comes up, the answer is already up to date.
Updated after the Dutch Grand Prix
Through 12 rounds of 2026, Esteban Ocon (Haas F1 Team) leads this table at +3.75, built from 4 counted races.
Behind him, Sergio Pérez holds second on +3.67, while Liam Lawson rounds out the top three at +3.33.
As with every Measure ranking, the numbers are computed directly from official race data and refreshed after each round. The big mover this round is Esteban Ocon, up 1 place to P1. Oscar Piastri heads the other way, down 4 places to P12.
After the Dutch Grand Prix (round 12), Esteban Ocon sits on top of the “Biggest improvement vs qualifying” ranking with +3.75 for Haas F1 Team, based on 4 races counted. Sergio Pérez is close behind in second on +3.67, with Liam Lawson third at +3.33. The biggest upward movers were Ocon and Pérez, each up 1 place to ranks 1 and 2 respectively, while Max Verstappen climbed 1 place to eighth with +1.43. On the downside, Oscar Piastri dropped 4 places to 12th despite still showing +1.13, and Lawson slipped 2 places to third even as he remains firmly in the lead group. The standout angle this week is how tight the top remains: Ocon’s edge over Pérez is slim, and with Lawson not far back either, a small swing in race-day execution could reshuffle the top three quickly even without dramatic changes in underlying performance.
Mean of (qualifying position minus race classification position) across races where the driver has both a qualifying and a race result and was classified. Because it uses the qualifying position rather than the starting grid, it is unaffected by grid penalties — unlike "Best average positions gained". A minimum of 3 races is required; drivers below the threshold are excluded, never estimated. Ties are broken by total season points, then alphabetically.
Mean of (qualifying position minus race classification position) across races where the driver has both a qualifying and a race result and was classified. Because it uses the qualifying position rather than the starting grid, it is unaffected by grid penalties — unlike "Best average positions gained". A minimum of 3 races is required; drivers below the threshold are excluded, never estimated. Ties are broken by total season points, then alphabetically.
After every Grand Prix. The standings above reflect results through the Dutch Grand Prix.
A higher value is better — the driver at the top of the table is the strongest by this measure.
Esteban Ocon (Haas F1 Team), with +3.75.