Outside the RASF1 monocular bubble in the real world, in the wider fan world, fans and F1 pundits have ranked the drivers.

F1 SITE EXPERT RANKINGS
01 -08.9- Max Verstappen
02 -08.4- Lewis Hamilton
03 -08.2- Lando Norris
04 -07.9- Charles Leclerc
05 -07.7- Pierre Gasly
05 -07.7- Carlos Sainz
07 -07.4- Fernando Alonso
08 -07.3- George Russell
09 -07.0- Esteban Ocon
10 -06.7- Sergio Perez

F1 SITE FAN RANKINGS
01 -08.80- Max Verstappen
02 -08.36- Lewis Hamilton
03 -07.75- Carlos Sainz
04 -07.71- Pierre Gasly
05 -07.65- Lando Norris
06 -07.17- Sergio Perez
07 -07.12- Fernando Alonso
08 -06.78- George Russell
09 -06.77- Charles Leclerc
10 -06.60- Esteban Ocon

I reckon if the fans and experts knew how good Nicolas Latifi is they'd have ranked George much, much higher. Next year they will find out how good. The only question in mind is how he will handle the pressure of the title battle.
If Lewis does retire then Merc should consider bringing in Nic as he is a great team player and would probably perform as well or better than Valtteri.

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* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)