Don't be fooled by Max Verstappen's sixth-place finish in the drivers' standings, was one of the most impressive drivers of the year.
2. Max Verstappen
Championship position: 6th (168 points)
Max Verstappen only stood on an F1 podium on four occasions this year, yet we still considered putting him at the top of this list ahead of eight-time race winner Lewis Hamilton. The main reason is that we couldn't recall an occasion when he didn't extract near 100 percent from his car.
Sure, he was outqualified by teammate Daniel Ricciardo on occasion -- hardly surprising considering Ricciardo's qualifying prowess -- but over the course of the season he was the faster of the two Red Bull drivers over one lap. He was overly aggressive on occasion -- especially at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix when he took Ricciardo out of the race at Turn 2 -- but that aggression also worked in his favour when attacking and defending position on numerous other occasions.
Just looking at the results Verstappen missed out on is impressive. In Bahrain he was running third when a brake issue stopped his race early. In Spain he was challenging for third on the outside of Turn 1 when Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen collided taking him out. In Canada he was as high as second when a battery failure left him stranded at the side of the track. In Baku he was running fourth (and stood to inherit the victory after problems and penalties for the cars ahead) when an engine failure cut his race short. And in Singapore he qualified second before a collision with the two Ferraris took him out at Turn 1. All ifs buts and maybes, but they help explain why his final points total doesn't fairly reflect his performances this year.
Despite all those setbacks, he continued to perform at a high level throughout the season and was rewarded with two dominant victories in Malaysia and Mexico at the end of the year. Over the last five races he scored 100 points, which was only matched by eventual champion Hamilton and exceeded the totals of Bottas (93) and Sebastian Vettel (82). What's more, across those five races he outperformed his Red Bull package while Hamilton's form undoubtedly dropped at the final two races.
If he has a car that allows him to keep that kind of performance going over the course of a full season, there is every reason to believe he could beat both Vettel and Hamilton to a title. Whether that happens in 2018 will depend on the quality of the Red Bull-Renault package, but there is very little doubt Verstappen's time at the top of F1 will come.