As usual, we\u2019ve considered many factors, including level of success, machinery at the driver\u2019s disposal, longevity and how highly they were rated by their contemporaries, as well as standout moments.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
![\"Raikkonen's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/podium-race-winner-kimi-raikko-1.jpg\")
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Raikkonen’s short stint with Lotus gives him the leg up over other contenders to just miss out on this list<\/p>\n
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n
Decade wins: 3
Decade poles: 2
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a very close-run thing between\u00a0Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> and Sergio Perez<\/a> for this spot. Hulkenberg and Perez were arguably more consistent performers across the decade, particularly given the weaker equipment at their disposal, but Raikkonen had greater peaks and managed three wins across the period.<\/p>\n The 2007 world champion missed the first two seasons of the decade due to his rallying and NASCAR adventures but returned with the\u00a0Enstone-based \u2018Lotus\u2019 team for 2012. An incredibly consistent season, which included victory in Abu Dhabi, brought him third in the championship and it was a similar story in 2013.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Raikkonen-Lotus combination was kind to the delicate Pirelli tyres, which was underlined by victory in the Melbourne season-opener. Raikkonen added six second-place finishes and was fifth in the points.<\/p>\n There was a suspicion that team-mate Romain Grosjean<\/a> was quicker at times, particularly towards the end of 2013, but it was Raikkonen\u2019s move back to Ferrari<\/a> that really hurts him in this list.<\/p>\n The 2014 F14 T was not very competitive in the first year of the turbo-hybrid era and\u00a0Raikkonen was obliterated by team-mate Fernando Alonso<\/a>. The departing Spaniard scored almost three times as many points and was 16-3 ahead in qualifying.<\/p>\n Things were a little better alongside Sebastian\u00a0Vettel<\/a> from 2015 but it was the German who led the way, taking eight victories across their first three seasons together and finishing second in the points in 2017, while Raikkonen remained winless.<\/p>\n The SF71H of 2018 was Ferrari\u2019s best car for several years.\u00a0Vettel used it to battle Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s Mercedes for the crown, while Raikkonen racked up the podiums. He finally scored his 21st and final F1 win at the United States GP, more than five years since his 20th, holding off Max Verstappen<\/a> and Hamilton in a fine drive.<\/p>\n But Ferrari had already announced Charles\u00a0Leclerc<\/a> was to replace Raikkonen for 2019 and the Finn joined the Alfa Romeo\/Sauber squad for the final season of the decade. Raikkonen did a solid job for the midfield stalwart and beat team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi<\/a> to end up 12th in the standings.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Webber had his day at the start of the era, but was often lacking an edge against his frontrunning rivals<\/p>\n Photo by: Andrew Hone \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 7 Webber was arguably at his peak as the decade begun, having finally taken his first two F1 victories in 2009. After toiling impressively with uncompetitive equipment for much of the previous decade, he finally had frontrunning machinery with Red Bull.<\/p>\n The 2010 season provided a classic title fight and\u00a0Webber was in the thick of it, along with team-mate Vettel, Alonso and McLaren<\/a> duo Hamilton and Jenson Button<\/a>. Webber was rarely far from Vettel\u2019s pace and sometimes ahead, and four wins helped him to the top of the championship.<\/p>\n But then came Korea, where Webber crashed out in tricky conditions while chasing Vettel. While the other Red Bull later suffered engine failure, Vettel was allowed to win in Brazil in a team 1-2, setting up a four-way fight for the crown.<\/p>\n Pitting early and getting stuck in traffic derailed\u00a0Webber\u2019s chances in Abu Dhabi and he could only struggle to eighth as Vettel won the race and snatched the crown, with Webber third in the final points.<\/p>\n Thereafter,\u00a0Vettel tended to set the pace at Red Bull, Webber struggling to get as much out of the blow-diffuser concept as his team-mate. While Vettel reeled off 11 wins and 15 poles in 2011, Webber\u2019s tallies were one and three \u2013 and he was beaten into third in the standings by Button.<\/p>\n It was a similar story in 2012,\u00a0Vettel taking the crown again with Webber down in sixth, though he did take his second Monaco and British GP successes.<\/p>\n Webber was third in the championship for the third time in four years in 2013 but it was a winless campaign \u2013 a stark contrast to Vettel\u2019s 13 \u2013 and the Australian retired from F1 having scored 42 podiums, 32 of them in this decade. He had contributed to four consecutive constructors\u2019 titles but been a shade behind the frontrunners of the era.<\/p>\n Bottas help contribute to four constructors’ titles for Mercedes in the 2010s<\/p>\n Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 7 It\u2019s easy to forget how much\u00a0Bottas impressed at Williams<\/a> early in his F1 career. He was a regular points scorer once the famous team switched to Mercedes power for the turbo-hybrid era in 2014 and generally had the upper hand over experienced team-mate Felipe Massa<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Finn had racked up nine podiums before\u00a0Nico Rosberg<\/a>\u2019s shock departure as world champion opened a door at Mercedes. Bottas got the gig and joined Hamilton.<\/p>\n Bottas\u2019s time at Mercedes can broadly be described as a success \u2013 he was usually close to Hamilton in qualifying, could win races on merit on his good days and contributed to five constructors\u2019 titles, most notably in 2021, though that doesn\u2019t count here.<\/p>\n But he was invariably in Hamilton\u2019s shadow. That was particularly the case in 2018, when an under-pressure\u00a0Bottas struggled to fifth in the championship while Hamilton took arguably his finest title.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n The 2019 season was better, Bottas taking a career-high four wins on his way to second in the table, albeit 87 points behind 11-time victor Hamilton. He was, perhaps, in the \u2018very, very good\u2019, as opposed to great, category.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Like predecessor\u00a0Rosberg, Bottas was sometimes lacking in wet conditions and wheel-to-wheel combat compared to the top drivers but, unlike Rosberg, he was straightforward off-track and improved team harmony. Given he never got close to emulating Rosberg\u2019s 2016 title, that could be seen as a negative as much as a positive, but it would be wrong to overlook Bottas\u2019s on-track efforts during the decade.<\/p>\n 7. Jenson Button Button did beat both Hamilton and Alonso as his team-mates in the 2010s<\/p>\n Photo by: Steven Tee \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 8 Joining Hamilton at\u00a0McLaren was a bold move by Button after winning the 2009 title with Brawn. But, if anything, his performances alongside a driver thought by many to be the fastest around enhanced Button\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n Yes, Hamilton was often quicker in qualifying, with a greater ability to improvise when the car wasn\u2019t handling right. But Button\u2019s race pace was often impressive and when things were right he could be unstoppable.<\/p>\n Button won as early as his second race with\u00a0McLaren, his victory in a rain-hit Australian GP setting the tone for his impressive performances in changeable conditions. Two races later, he beat Hamilton in a wet-weather duel in China, and he remained in championship contention until the late stages of the season.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Button finished behind Hamilton in the 2010 standings but a combination of a troubled campaign for Lewis and an inspired one for Jenson turned the tables in 2011. In what was perhaps his finest season, Button was often the closest challenger to the dominant Red Bulls.<\/p>\n He took three excellent wins, including his famous last-lap success in a dramatic Canadian GP, and split\u00a0Vettel and Webber in the points. It was enough for Autosport to rank him second, ahead of Alonso, in its season review.<\/p>\n McLaren didn\u2019t make the most of its pace in 2012, but Button took another three victories and finished just two points behind Hamilton. Button was so fast at Spa that a disgruntled Hamilton ended up tweeting sensitive telemetry information\u2026<\/p>\n Hamilton headed to Mercedes for 2013, leaving Button as team leader alongside Perez. But\u00a0McLaren went too radical with its car and started a decline that would last for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n Button was joined by\u00a0Alonso for the disastrous McLaren-Honda years. He beat the Spaniard in the 2015 championship, thereby becoming the only team-mate to finish ahead of both Hamilton and Alonso over a season in the same car, though Alonso tended to have the edge across their two years together.<\/p>\n Aside from a one-off at Monaco while Alonso competed in the Indianapolis 500, Button retired from F1 at the end of 2016 but continued to enjoy success elsewhere, including winning the 2018 Super GT crown in Japan.<\/p>\n Ricciardo shone during Red Bull’s dip during the middle part of the decade<\/p>\n Photo by: Andrew Hone \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 7 We\u2019re almost certain that, had he arrived at Red Bull three or four years earlier,\u00a0Ricciardo would have been a world champion. But the Australian\u2019s best years coincided with a trough between two dominant Red Bull eras.<\/p>\n Ricciardo arrived in F1 during 2011, driving for the minnow HRT operation. He joined Toro Roso the following year and impressed enough to be promoted to the main Red Bull team as fellow Australian Webber retired at the end of 2013.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Alongside four-time champion Vettel, Ricciardo was outstanding, adapting to the turbo-hybrid regulations and outperforming his illustrious team-mate. Amid a season dominated by Mercedes, Ricciardo snatched three wins \u2013 his Hungarian GP success being particularly well taken \u2013 and he was comfortably third in the 2014 driver standings.<\/p>\n The 2015 season was tougher for Red Bull.\u00a0Ricciardo was outscored by team-mate Daniil Kvyat<\/a>, though was the stronger performer overall. That was underlined in 2016, when Ricciardo was again the top non-Mercedes runner while Kvyat struggled and was replaced by Verstappen. It was the second time in three years that Ricciardo topped Autosport\u2019s driver rankings.<\/p>\n Ricciardo continued to lead the team while Verstappen got himself into scrapes and made errors, but it was clear he was a rising threat. Misfortune for an increasingly impressive Verstappen helped Ricciardo finish ahead in the 2017 table and he also started 2018 promisingly.<\/p>\n Ricciardo won the Chinese GP after an overly optimistic move by Verstappen on Hamilton allowed the second Red Bull ahead. And, on a Monaco weekend Verstappen hurt his chances by crashing in practice, Ricciardo took another fine victory despite MGU-K failure.<\/p>\n Thereafter,\u00a0Verstappen increasingly gained the ascendency, taking two wins and finishing two spots ahead in the table. Ricciardo felt his future lay elsewhere and he joined Renault for the final season of the decade. It was a mixed campaign battling in the midfield but he edged team-mate Hulkenberg and ended the era still regarded as among F1\u2019s best.<\/p>\n 5. Max\u00a0Verstappen Verstappen became F1’s youngest-ever winner at the 2016 Spanish GP<\/p>\n Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 8 In terms of the level reached by the end of the decade,\u00a0Verstappen would be higher on this list. It was soon obvious he was going to be a superstar, but there were still rough edges and mistakes that were only truly banished towards the end of the 2010s.<\/p>\n Verstappen shot into F1 with Toro Rosso in 2015 after just one year in F3. Fellow rookie team-mate Carlos Sainz<\/a> ran him closer than many remember but it was the Dutchman who scored the lion\u2019s share of the squad\u2019s points and who got promoted to Red Bull after just four GPs of 2016, replacing Daniil Kvyat.<\/p>\n Verstappen sensationally won his first race for Red Bull, the Spanish GP, and put in several other star performances, including a famous third at a wet Brazilian GP.<\/p>\n His early years were marked by lots of incidents, moving under braking and pushing wheel-to-wheel etiquette to (and sometimes beyond) the limit. But his speed was never in doubt and he was becoming more and more formidable as an overall competitor.<\/p>\n Verstappen was perhaps unfortunate to be beaten by team-mate Ricciardo in 2017 and, once some missed opportunities (most notably in China and Monaco) were cast aside early in 2018, he gained the upper hand within the team.<\/p>\n With\u00a0Ricciardo gone for 2019, Verstappen became the clear team leader and brilliantly spent the season chasing the pacesetting Mercedes. He took a dramatic win in Austria after banging wheels with fellow rising star Leclerc, spun and won a wet German GP, and was then dominant in Brazil.<\/p>\n Verstappen finished third, best non-Mercedes driver, in the standings and was second in both the Autocourse and Autosport driver rankings. By the end of the decade, it was clear he was the driver most likely to end Hamilton\u2019s reign at the top of F1.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0Nico Rosberg Rosberg retired just days after winning the 2016 title<\/p>\n Photo by: Steve Etherington \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 23 Having been a promising newcomer with Williams,\u00a0Rosberg started the decade at Mercedes alongside returning legend Michal Schumacher. There was always a question mark over the seven-time world champion\u2019s level after his break and motorcycle crash, but the fact remains that Rosberg beat him in each of their three seasons together.<\/p>\n Rosberg took his first pole and win at the 2012 Chinese GP before Hamilton arrived for the following season. Hamilton came out ahead but it was close enough to suggest the Briton wasn\u2019t going to have things all his own way. Rosberg also took the first of three Monaco GP wins in 2013.<\/p>\n Rosberg had the qualifying edge in 2014, but Hamilton tended to be better in races and wheel-to-wheel combat. The double-points Abu Dhabi finale made the title decider a little more tense that it might have been before ERS problems dropped Rosberg from contention and secured Hamilton the crown. Given the final wins tally was 11-5 to Hamilton that was fair enough.<\/p>\n Hamilton stamped his authority more firmly in 2015. He reversed the qualifying form and clinched the title with three rounds to go, having won 10 of the first 16 races. But\u00a0Rosberg finished the campaign by winning the three final GPs, setting himself up nicely for the following year.<\/p>\n Rosberg duly carried that into 2016, going unbeaten over the first four races of the season before the Mercedes duo infamously took each other out in Spain. Thereafter Hamilton came on strong but a combination of occasional poor starts and retirement from the lead in Malaysia hampered his comeback.<\/p>\n A brilliant pole and win at\u00a0Suzuka meant Rosberg could afford to finish second to Hamilton over the final four GPs to secure the crown. He duly did just that, despite Hamilton\u2019s best efforts to back up the pack at the Abu Dhabi finale.<\/p>\n Sometimes too soft in wheel-to-wheel combat early in his career, Rosberg seemed to overcorrect later. He was the perpetrator more often than not in the clashes with Hamilton, most notably at the 2014 Belgian and 2016 Austrian GPs.<\/p>\n There were also suspicions about some of his tactics \u2013 was his 2014 Monaco qualifying mistake really an error? Having said that,\u00a0Rosberg showed incredible mental fortitude to keep bouncing back against Hamilton and sensibly retired after taking a hard-earned title he was unlikely to repeat.<\/p>\n 3. Fernando Alonso Alonso’s 2012 win at Valencia was one of his greatest of all time<\/p>\n Photo by: Patrik Lundin \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Decade wins: 11 This writer believes that only\u00a0Alonso competes with Hamilton in terms of consistency of high performance across this decade. His efforts, often in less-than-stellar machinery, were superb and his 2012 campaign one of F1\u2019s greatest.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n But four titles to Alonso\u2019s string of near misses, as well as winning four times as many GPs, means Vettel has to be second in this list and so Alonso completes the top three. Interestingly, Autocourse\u2019s average seasonal ratings for the duo across the era was 3.3 to Vettel and 3.4 to Alonso, while Autosport had Alonso on 3.3 to Vettel\u2019s 4.4.<\/p>\n Alonso began the decade joining a Ferrari team that had struggled in the first season of the new ruleset. The F10 was better and the championship was an open one, with Red Bull and McLaren also in the mix.<\/p>\n![\"Webber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f1-monaco-gp-2012-mark-webber-red-bull-racing-rb8-leads-nico-rosberg-mercedes-f1-w03-lewis.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 12
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n![\"Bottas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/valtteri-bottas-mercedes-amg-f-1.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 11
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Button](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jenson-button-mclaren-mp4-26-m-1.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 1
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n![\"Ricciardo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f1-monaco-gp-2018-daniel-ricciardo-red-bull-racing-dives-into-the-swimming-pool-on-the-red.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 3
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Verstappen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f1-spanish-gp-2018-max-verstappen-red-bull-racing-rb12-tag-heuer-takes-the-chequered-flag.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 2
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Rosberg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/race-winner-nico-rosberg-merce-1.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 30
Decade titles: 1 (2016)<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Alonso's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dpl1224ju081.jpg\")
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Decade poles: 4
Decade titles: 0<\/p>\n
![\"Sebastian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f1-indian-gp-2013-sebastian-vettel-red-bull-racing-salutes-his-car.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lewis-hamilton-mercedes-amg-f-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Hamilton's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772029635_17_lewis-hamilton-mercedes.jpg\")
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