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F1 team principals' top 10 driver rankings revealed

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have topped the annual Autosport Team Principals' Top 10 drivers ranking for the fourth straight year.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15, 2nd position, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, 1st position, perform donuts

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15, 2nd position, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, 1st position, perform donuts

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

In what has now become an annual tradition after an original idea that began in 2008, Autosport asks each of the team bosses to pick their top 10 drivers of the year.

The individual results are kept secret – so the team principals can answer honestly – and the tally totted up using F1's point structure that runs from 25 points for first down to 1 point for 10th. Autosport magazine then publishes the final overall results.

In the end, it was Hamilton's charge to his sixth world championship that impressed the bosses enough to give him the nod over Verstappen – although the gap between them was just 23 points.

The pair have finished as the top two drivers every campaign since 2016.

Behind this duo, Charles Leclerc's impressive first season for Ferrari earned him third spot as he was the only other driver to get more than 100 points. His teammate Sebastian Vettel dropped from third in 2018 to fifth this year.

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The Top 10 list featured three new entries on the back of impressive campaigns from a host of rookies – with Alex Albon, George Russell and Lando Norris making it on to the list for the first time.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz also returned to the top 10 after his great season for McLaren put him back in the F1 spotlight.

The nine team principals who took part were Toto Wolff, Christian Horner, Cyril Abiteboul, Gunther Steiner, Andreas Seidl, Otmar Szafnauer, Fred Vasseur, Franz Tost and Claire Williams.

Here is the final list:

Position Driver Points Previous year
1 Lewis Hamilton 169 No change
2 Max Verstappen 146 No change
3 Charles Leclerc 124 Up 3
4 Valtteri Bottas 68 Up 4
5 Sebastian Vettel 58 Down 2
6 Alex Albon 57 New entry
7 Carlos Sainz 55 Re-entry
8 Daniel Ricciardo 49 Down 3
9 George Russell 41 New entry
10 Lando Norris 38 New entry

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