As Formula 1 enters an exciting new era in 2026, who tamed the bouncing behemoths of the ground-effect era the best?
10. Nico Hulkenberg
Returning to the grid in 2023 with Haas after two substitute appearances for Aston Martin in 2022, Nico Hulkenberg bested team-mate Kevin Magnussen straight off the bat.
With an uncompetitive 2023 Haas package, Hulkenberg scored nine points to Magnussen’s three as the American outfit propped up the standings, with a standout seventh-place finish in Australia, both the German and Haas’ best result of the year.
A significantly improved 2024 Haas car saw Hulkenberg return to his well-established form as a strong midfield driver, once again outscoring Magnussen by 41 points to 16.
12 points finishes across 2024 were spotlighted by two back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Austria and Great Britain, while in comparison, Magnussen only managed six points finishes with a best finish of seventh.
A return to Sauber for 2025 saw Hulkenberg continue his 2024 form, scoring in nine races and once again out-scoring his team-mate, this time being 2024 Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto by 51 points to 19.
In addition to this, Hulkenberg finally broke his podium duck with a masterful drive in tricky conditions at Silverstone, ending his 239-race wait for a trip to the F1 rostrum.
Throughout the ground-effect era, when Hulkenberg has had the machinery underneath him, he has more often than not got the job done and continued to show his talents as a midfield maestro.
9. Pierre Gasly
Despite never having the most competitive package across the ground-effect era, Pierre Gasly remained a strong performer and often outperformed his car.
In his final season within the Red Bull family with the then-named Alpha Tauri [now Racing Bulls] outfit in 2022, Gasly scored almost double the points of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, recording six points finishes and even a top-five finish in Azerbaijan.
Once moving to the Alpine setup from 2023 onwards, the Frenchman has outclassed every one of his team-mates, beating talented compatriot Esteban Ocon in 2023 and 2024 and comfortably being clear of Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto in 2025.
Often driving underperforming Alpine machinery, Gasly was often a threat to the points and even scored two podiums in the process, in the chaotic Dutch Grand Prix of 2023 and wet weather thriller in Brazil 2024.
The Frenchman also scored 100 per cent of Alpine’s 2025 points, as well as achieving 10 Q3 appearances in the clear slowest car on the grid.
8. Oscar Piastri
After an impressive debut season in 2023, scoring 97 points, Oscar Piastri has gone from strength to strength throughout the ground-effect era.
Having taken a year off after back-to-back junior titles as Alpine’s reserve driver, the switch to McLaren saw Piastri challenged with an uncompetitive package to begin with.
However, after a crucial upgrade package midway through 2023, McLaren surged forward, and the Australian would manage his first two podium finishes, as well as a first victory in the Qatar Sprint Race.
With a much more competitive 2024 package, Piastri would record another six podium finishes and his first Grand Prix victories, with wins in Hungary and Azerbaijan playing a crucial part in McLaren winning a first Constructors’ crown since 1998.
Continuing his growth in his third season of F1, Piastri spent much of 2025 as the Championship leader, though he would crumble in the latter stages of the season and ultimately finish third in the standings.
Adding seven further victories to his name in 2025, as well as six pole positions, saw Piastri have his strongest season to date, despite missing out on the ultimate prize.
7. Carlos Sainz
Having made the switch to Ferrari in the final year of the pre-2022 regulations, Carlos Sainz would achieve four F1 victories in the ground-effect era.
A maiden victory from pole at Silverstone, combined with eight further podiums, saw the Spaniard finish fifth in the standings in 2022.
Sainz would also be the only driver to deny Red Bull the clean sweep of victories in 2023, with a masterfully controlled victory under the lights in Singapore once again from pole.
A further two wins and seven podiums in 2024 saw Sainz finish fifth in the standings once again as Ferrari missed out on a first Constructors’ title since 2008 by just 14 points.
After a shock ousting from the Scuderia for 2025, a move to the Williams team allowed Sainz to continue his strong form as the season developed.
Despite a slow start adapting to his new home at Grove, the Spaniard would record the team’s first podium finishes since 2021 with brilliant drives in both Baku and Qatar.
Combined with 10 other points finishes in 2025, Sainz was a key player in Williams achieving its best result since 2017, finishing fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
6. Lewis Hamilton
The ground-effect era will go down as the least successful of Lewis Hamilton’s time in the sport, although there were still plenty of high points from the seven-time F1 champion.
A physically challenging car to drive in 2022 saw the Briton go without a win for the first time in his career, although he would still achieve nine podiums across the season, including a run of five in a row between Canada and Hungary.
Despite another winless season in 2023, Hamilton would be one of the top three drivers of the season, recording another six podium finishes and his most recent Grand Prix pole to date in Hungary.
A very consistent campaign saw Hamilton almost finish the 2023 season as runner-up, if not for a late-season slump in performance from himself and Mercedes.
Hamilton would return to the top step of the podium in 2024, with an emotional and record-extending ninth home race victory at Silverstone, as well as another victory in Belgium after the disqualification of team-mate George Russell post-race.
Unfortunately, the rest of 2024 would not be as successful for Hamilton, with only three other podium finishes seeing him finish outside the top six in the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career.
A seismic move to Ferrari for 2025 ultimately failed to bear any fruit, too, with the Brit concluding an F1 season without a Grand Prix podium for the first time, with a Sprint victory from pole in Shanghai the only notable high point from his season.
5. George Russell
Having spent three campaigns towards the back with Williams, Russell stepped up to Mercedes as the ground-effect era began and made an instant impression.
Russell would finish outside the top five just twice in 2022, recording his first Grand Prix victory in Brazil in the process and beating Hamilton in the standings straight away.
A disappointing 2023 would follow, however, with just two podium finishes and a lowly eighth-place finish overall as Hamilton had him well beaten across the season.
2024 would see Russell beat Hamilton once again, recording two more victories as he picked up the pieces in Austria and dominated from pole in Las Vegas.
With the departure of Hamilton to Ferrari for 2025, Russell would step flawlessly into the role of de facto team leader and have his most productive season to date.
Two wins and a further seven podiums saw Russell wind up behind the title three protagonists, scoring 319 points and often putting himself in the mix when his W16 played ball.
Finishing in the points in all but one race in 2025, Russell was just two laps away from joining Michael Schumacher, Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Piastri in completing every racing lap across a season, missing out after a disappointing Monaco Grand Prix in 11th, two laps down.
4. Fernando Alonso
Despite not always having the most competitive machinery, Fernando Alonso was consistently one of the strongest performers on the grid throughout the ground-effect era.
While he was beaten by Ocon in his final season at Alpine in 2022, the Spaniard would record three top-five finishes and 11 further points finishes across the season.
Replacing old rival Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin for 2023, Alonso would have a remarkable campaign as the Silverstone-based squad nailed the early stages of the season.
Six podiums in the first eight races and eight total podiums across 2023 would see Alonso finish fourth in the standings, scoring points in all but three weekends.
While Aston Martin failed to kick on, Alonso continued to perform strongly, finishing in the top 10 in the standings in each season and constantly having the better of Lance Stroll.
3. Lando Norris
Ever since his entrance into the sport back in 2019, Norris has continued to grow as a driver, and the ground-effect era saw him finally achieve his childhood dream.
Norris was the sole driver outside the big three teams in 2022 to take a podium, while also amassing 85 points more than experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
That prompted McLaren to axe the Australian, replacing him with compatriot Piastri, rewarding Norris’ stellar growth since his debut in 2019 with a team leader role.
And once McLaren fixed its troubled MCL60, Norris would more than double his existing podium tally, finishing just a point away from a top-four finish in the standings.
With an even more competitive package in 2024, Norris would emerge as a distant title threat, ending up 63 points away from Verstappen come the end of the season.
Having earned a maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami, a further three wins and nine podiums would back up the Briton’s strongest season to date.
However, the bridesmaid of 2024 would make the step forward and achieve his dream of becoming World Champion in 2025, beating team-mate Piastri and Verstappen to become McLaren’s first World Champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Only three finishes off the podium across 2025 saw the Briton win the title by just two points, despite two pointless scores outside of his control in Zandvoort and Las Vegas.
2. Charles Leclerc
Speaking of bridesmaids, Charles Leclerc has spent much of the ground-effect era as the unfortunate party, never quite having the package to put it all together.
Despite a strong start to 2022, a late-season collapse from Ferrari, combined with an untouchable Verstappen and Red Bull partnership, saw Leclerc fall short.
A less competitive season from Ferrari saw the Monegasque go winless in 2023, with six trips to the rostrum resigning him to a fifth-place finish in the standings.
But despite the Monegasque returning to the top step in 2024 with victories in Monaco and Monza, Ferrari missed out on the Constructors’ Championship to McLaren.
Unfortunately, 2025 would follow up with another winless season for both Leclerc and the Scuderia as a whole, yet Leclerc stood out as one of the standout performers, often performing miracles with his fundamentally flawed SF-25.
An against-the-odds pole position in Hungary, coupled with seven podium finishes, saw Leclerc easily wipe the floor with new team-mate Hamilton, only finishing outside the top five on seven occasions in a Ferrari car that finished a distant 435 points adrift of McLaren in fourth in the standings.
1. Max Verstappen
There was only one name that could be first in this list, with Max Verstappen dominating the ground-effect era of F1.
The Dutchman romped to three easy titles in 2022, ’23, and ’24 and only missed out on the clean sweep by two points in 2025 after a slow start to the campaign from Red Bull.
The stats regarding the Dutchman’s dominance of the ground-effect era are simply astonishing, winning more than half the races across the 96 completed within the era.
Verstappen ends the era with more wins, poles and podium finishes than any other driver or constructor and including a win percentage of 86 per cent in 2023.
He is also the only driver to win in every season of the ground-effect era and even outscored Mercedes by 26 points across the four-year period.
With very few poor performances across the era as a whole, it is safe to say that the ground-effect era of F1 can also be described as the Max Verstappen era, too.
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