1,000 Greatest Drivers: Pascal Wehrlein

He successfully "wagered" on Porsche to redeem himself after losing his F1 ride.

Wehrlein is a driver who I feel never really got his due because he won a major league touring car championship at the age of 20, then had a solid F1 career in godawful equipment where it doesn’t feel like he really did anything wrong but got disposed of anyway. With his Formula E title this year, he has now emerged as one of the best open wheel drivers in the world, ranking 13th overall among current drivers behind only Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Mitch Evans, Pato O’Ward, Edoardo Mortara, George Russell, Scott Dixon, Álex Palou, Josef Newgarden, and Daniel Ricciardo (in that order). He might pass Ricciardo with my next update. I may tweak his season ratings around some since I have not yet calculated complete statistical tables for all Formula E seasons yet, although I do intend to do that and the data for every season are definitely still out there. At the moment, Wehrlein currently still is the only driver with both a major league open wheel and touring car championship this century. It’s certainly possible that Scott McLaughlin will join him at some point since it seems like most people expect him to win an IndyCar title, but that definitely isn’t guaranteed. If that happens, then I’ll obviously have to edit this too.