F1 Places Gained 2026: Who Really Moves Up the Order?

F1 places gained in 2026, measured as grid position minus finishing position across rounds 1 to 15, put Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez joint top at +4.0 per race, with Carlos Sainz third on +2.3. That ranking looks like a list of the best racers. It is closer to a list of the worst qualifiers, and the gap between those two readings is the whole story.

Who gains the most places in F1 in 2026?

Using GridRaces results for 2026 rounds 1 to 15, restricted to drivers with at least eight races where we hold both a grid slot and a classified finish, the leaders are Alonso (+4.0 per race over 9 races), Pérez (+4.0 over 10), Sainz (+2.3 over 13), Liam Lawson (+2.2 over 14) and Isack Hadjar (+2.1 over 10). At the bottom sit Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc (both -0.7) and George Russell (-0.5).

One caveat before the argument: this counts only races a driver was classified in. A retirement is not in the sample, so the negative numbers are, if anything, kinder than reality.

Why does the places-gained table flatter the back of the grid?

Because you cannot lose places you do not hold. Alonso averaged a start of 19.3th in these races and Pérez 19.4th. From there the only direction is up, and arithmetic does most of the work. Russell averaged 3.0th on the grid, so even a perfect race from his slot has little room to gain. Leclerc averaged 4.3th and Piastri 5.8th.

Here is the sentence to screenshot: a driver who starts at the back and finishes 15th has out-overtaken the driver who started on the front row and won, and has done it by a measure that rewards missing Saturday.

So is the data useless?

No, and this is where it earns its keep. Two drivers do not fit the pattern of "gained places because they started badly".

Hadjar averaged a grid slot of 8.1 and still gained 2.1 places per race, in 7 of 10 races. Starting in the top ten and moving up is harder than starting at the back and moving up, because the cars around you are quick. Max Verstappen averaged 6.5th on the grid and gained 1.5 per race, moving forward in 9 of 12. Those are real signals. They say something about racecraft and race pace, not just about a qualifying session gone wrong.

Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, is the case worth a second look. He started on average from 4.3rd and still finished +0.7 places better per race, across all 15 races, the biggest sample on the list. He beat his grid slot in 7 of those 15. That is not a headline stat. It is a front-runner who, on balance, never gives back what qualifying earned him, and that is the sort of dull habit that wins titles. It is also a pattern, not a proof, and we label it as one.

What does the pattern say about the leaders?

That qualifying is where this season is being decided, and race day rarely overturns it. Russell, Leclerc and Piastri are all negative per race while starting among the first six, which is simply what the front of a grid does to people: the only things available are holding and losing. Lewis Hamilton, at +0.4 over 14 races, is almost exactly flat.

If you want one number that separates the front of the field, ignore places gained and look at how often a driver beats their own grid slot at all. Verstappen did it in 9 of 12 races. Antonelli did it in 7 of 15. Russell did it in 3 of 13. Different strategies, different cars, and different luck, but the order is the same story.

What is the counter-argument?

That places gained is a fair measure of racecraft over a long season, and that we are being too harsh on Alonso and Pérez. It is a fair point on its face: starting at the back and getting to the points is a skill, and it is made more impressive when the car is not good enough to start higher. We do not dispute that. We dispute reading the table as a ranking of overall quality, because it is not one.

Verdict

Use places gained for what it is: a measure of how much a driver recovered from their Saturday. The honest list of race-day improvers in 2026 is short and starts with Hadjar and Verstappen, whose gains came from nearer the front. Everything else is the table telling you who qualified poorly.

Want to test your own read? Open the telemetry page for pace and stint data from any round, then make your Singapore picks and see whether you can call who will beat their grid slot on 11 October 2026. A league is a good place to argue about it afterwards.