Please contain your rage! Or at least soften it until you’ve read to the end of this piece.
The Autosport Top 50, which has become a traditional end-of-season monster since the first edition in 2002, is not meant to be provocative but the very nature of it means that it is.
The aim, put simply, is to highlight and rank the 50 drivers who have performed the best in their chosen discipline(s) during a motorsport season. It is not an attempt to list the 50 best drivers in the world at that time – that’s a different list – and Autosport likes to showcase as many of the major international series as possible.
It’s not a case of picking the 20 Formula 1 drivers and going from there, either, because there are far too many fantastic series and brilliant drivers around the world, even though – as the pinnacle – F1 is always well represented.
So, how do we go about putting this list together? It is hard enough to compare competitors in the same series, sometimes even in the same teams, never mind those in different championships. It is obviously impossible to get a definitive comparison of drivers across categories, some of whom have never raced against each other, but it’s a challenge we’re happy to take on.
One of the key points to remember is that the starting point is the top 10 listings for each championship from the relevant correspondents. They are the ones in the paddocks and with the insights, so we stick to those 10s unless a driver has had significant programmes or success elsewhere.
For example, Sebastien Buemi’s position has often been boosted by his dual programmes in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, though his poor showing in the all-electric series in 2024 actually dragged him down a bit this time.
It’s then a case of trying to balance how strong a particular championship has been and how good each driver has been within it. An outstanding performance in the World Rally Championship – the pinnacle of that branch of the sport – often gets a driver in among the top positions, along with F1. Indeed, Sebastien Loeb’s incredible 2005 campaign got him to top spot.
While the aim is to be as fair and objective as possible, a degree of judgement and artistic licence has to come in. Should the 10th-best performing F1 driver be higher than the top F2 driver or touring car ace?
The most obvious omission from the 2024 list is Josef Newgarden. You might think that winning the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 24 Hours in the same season would make his inclusion a certainty, but there are several factors at play
That will depend on the individual circumstances. Oscar Piastri’s F2 title in 2021, for example, got him to 23rd, higher than normal for a feeder series champion, because it was so dominant and impressive against a strong field.
Once a draft list has been made, with those in a theoretical 51-70ish included, it is circulated around the editorial team for feedback. Arguments then ensue until agreement is reached – or someone has to pull rank to prevent the debate raging forever!
This is made doubly difficult by the fact that the process has to start before all championships are finished so there are occasionally late changes to the order.
Perhaps the most obvious omission from the 2024 list is Josef Newgarden. You might think, quite reasonably, that winning the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 24 Hours in the same season would make you a certainty to make the list, but there are several factors at play.
Firstly, he was only seventh in our correspondent's IndyCar rankings this season (and eighth in the points standings). The top five made it into the 50, so Newgarden needed a boost for his Daytona success to get into our end-of-year half-century.
But a closer look at the IMSA blue-riband event shows that Newgarden did a little over three of the 24 hours. Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell (both of whom did make the 50) did two-thirds of the race between them and the averages of their best 30 laps were 1.7 seconds and 1.4s quicker than Newgarden’s respectively.
That’s not to say the two-time IndyCar driver did a bad job – Nasr and Campbell were the regulars and Newgarden played his part in keeping the car on the road while they rested – but it’s not the sort of standout performance that will boost you up our list. ‘Special drivers do special things’ is one of the guiding principles of the Top 50 and this doesn’t qualify for that.
Or, to put it another way, it’s not the ‘top 50 most successful drivers of the year’. That would be a much more simplistic, statistics-based list without context, nuance or the insights that come from being in paddocks and service parks. It’d be far easier to do, but also less interesting – or indicative of true driver performance.
Aside from Newgarden, Antonio Fuoco could be the most aggrieved. He’s the highest ‘dropout’ from last year, having ranked seventh in 2023 as the top WEC driver. And this year he won Le Mans and finished higher in the driver standings!
His ‘fall’ was partly due to being overshadowed at Ferrari by Nicklas Nielsen, who did make our list. The significantly expanded WEC grid also brought more drivers into the mix and stars from other teams nipped in ahead.
It’s all very fine margins, particularly in the complicated world of endurance racing, in which even drivers of the same car can experience different conditions or be given different tasks, such as a stint conserving tyres and fuel.
Another name who narrowly missed out at the very end of our process was Australian Supercars runner-up Broc Feeney. With champion and Triple Eight team-mate Will Brown up in 22nd, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to have had Feeney on the list - and he was, before losing out to four-time Formula E race winner Antonio Felix da Costa in the final reckoning.
That’s a great example of how difficult it is to compare drivers who have very different campaigns in such disparate categories. The experienced da Costa won four races in a 16-round, international all-electric single-seater series, while up-and-comer Feeney won six times in 24 outings in a highly competitive national championship in a V8 touring car.
Ultimately, what we hope to do is place the spotlight on the many different stars in motorsport in a given year
Which is why you shouldn’t take it too seriously. We do take it as seriously as possible while we are making the list, but we also know that there are many different ways you can slice it. No individual at Autosport ever agrees with the list in its entirety.
Ultimately, what we hope to do is place the spotlight on the many different stars in motorsport in a given year. The level is incredibly high and there are always great drivers who miss out.
Plus, there’s always next year…
