Charles Leclerc Loses to Sebastian Vettel & Daniel Ricciardo in Updated 2020 F1 Codemasters Rankings

Codemasters, the British video game developer, who are the makers of the popular licensed F1 game, have just released the final update for the game’s 2020 version. There have been some changes to the final rankings of drivers as well as their overall stats, with the most shocking one involving Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque had one heck of a season driving the lackluster Ferrari SF1000. He managed to haul the car onto the podium twice and outscored his teammate Sebastian Vettel by 65 points.

Yet, rather inexplicably, Leclerc finds himself behind Vettel in the overall rankings at sixth place. His overall stats in the game dropped from 87 to 86.

The previous update to the drivers’ stats came in October. In the six races factored since then, Leclerc scored 35 points. Vettel, on the other hand, scored only 16 points. Yet the German remained fourth in the rankings with no drop in his overall rating of 88.

Apart from Charles Leclerc and Vettel, how did the other big names place in the F1 game?

Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton, who wrapped up his seventh world title, is the unsurprising one to top the list. The Briton’s final score in the game is 93, one less than what he began the season on.

In second place is Red Bull ace Max Verstappen, with a final score of 92 (two more than what he began the season with). Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas was the third-highest ranked driver with a score of 90.

Daniel Ricciardo ranked in fifth place with a final score of 88, while Red Bull’s new recruit Sergio Perez is ranked seventh, with a final score of 85.

Alfa Romeo’s ageless wonder Kimi Raikkonen shares the ninth-place berth with last year’s McLaren duo of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, having 85 points each. Sainz may well have better stats next season as he joins Ferrari for whom he has already begun testing.

The lowest-ranked driver was Williams’ Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian’s final score was just 70, although this is a six-point increment from where he started the season.

With the 2021 season just around the corner, fans of the game will be anxiously awaiting the release of the new version. A release date hasn’t been announced as of yet. but the last two iterations of the game were released around late June to mid-July.

Until then, fans will be looking forward to seeing the actual action kick start on March 28.

Also Read: ‘Happy to Be Back on Track’ – Ferrari Sporting Director Rounds Off the ‘Busy’ F1 Testing Week at Fiorano