Written by Aaron Carroll, Jackson Lambros and Vyas Ponnuri
Welcome to DIVEBOMB's Power Rankings, a popular segment of DIVEBOMB's team unpacking the best racing performances all month, after taking drivers' machinery out of the consideration. Here are DIVEBOMB's choices for the month of January....
1st - Sebastian Ogier (WRC)
The choice to put Sebastian Ogier at the top of this list wasn’t a hard one. The veteran started the Rally Monte-Carlo on a high, winning the first stage by 3.9s against Elfyn Evans.
A small mistake put Ogier back 15s in third place, but on Friday afternoon the French driver excelled on the ice-covered roads (which he labelled his “home stage” due to its proximity to the village in which he spent most of his childhood) and retook the first position.
Ogier didn’t lose his hard-earned lead again, as he continued to excel over the ever-changing conditions. On Sunday Ogier secured his win by 18.5s, for a record-breaking 10th time in the French Alps.
2nd - No.7 Porsche Penske Motorsport (IMSA)
It’s hard to fault Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre, Nick Tandy or Felipe Nasr. The four drivers of the No.7 Porsche Penske GTP made hardly any mistakes during the 24 hours at Daytona and their result shows it.
The quartet went wheel-to-wheel with their competitors throughout the race, locking horns with BMW, Acura, Cadillac and the sister Porsche on multiple occasions. There was a scare for the team too, when Kevin Estre went straight on into the runoff at the Le Mans chicane after a big lockup, but the car kept pointing in the right direction.
Despite the best efforts of Tom Blomqvist in the No.60 Acura late in the race, the Porsche Penske crew reigned victorious in Daytona. A historic win at North America’s biggest sports car race for Porsche puts them second on our list.
3rd - Oliver Rowland (Formula E)
If there was one driver who stunned the Formula E paddock with his rebound after a difficult season opener in São Paulo, it was Oliver Rowland. The Briton appeared seemingly at ease, saving his energy and attack mode for later in the race, before capitalising on a narrow window of opportunity between two safety car periods at the fag end of the race.
Making it deep into the qualifying duels for the second weekend running, Rowland lost to eventual pole-sitter Pascal Wehrlein in the semi-final. This brought him a fourth-position grid start for the race.
For the first half, Rowland would sit behind the two works Porsche cars of Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa, watching as the duo scrapped away with the Andretti-Porsche of Jake Dennis. He preserved six minutes of attack mode for late in the race, taking it on lap 26.
However, David Beckmann’s off into the barriers at turn 12 brought out a safety car on lap 27, scuppering Rowland’s opportunities to maximise the effect of attack mode. Yet, quick work by the marshalls meant the grid went back to green flag running on lap 30.
This is where Rowland struck, utilising the remaining attack mode to surge past Dennis and Wehrlein in the early stages of the lap. The Nissan driver then harried leader da Costa into turns 9, 10 and 11, before stealing the lead just as the safety car was called out once again.
Rowland then held on for the final five laps to finish with the bare minimum of 0.1% energy in his Nissan, winning the Mexico City E-Prix from da Costa. A stellar, opportunistic victory for the Briton, the best-placed Formula E driver on DIVEBOMB’s power rankings in January.
4th - Daniel Sanders (W2RC - Dakar)
Very rarely do we see someone in the world of rally-raid enter Divebomb’s ranking…much less someone on two wheels. But Sanders, who leaves the month with a dominant Dakar win makes his spot in this list beyond deserved.
In a rally where starting position is crucial, the KTM rider always thought one stage ahead of the competition. A win in the prologue meant he could start the initial stage in the middle of the Rally GP field, where he’d end day one fastest.
He wouldn’t look back for the next two weeks, turning the wick up to grab stage wins on days where he started deep, and using opening stages to lay back and hold his lead.
He’d feel the pressure from Honda’s Tosha Schareina, who always remained in striking distance, but never cracked, ending the rally nearly nine minutes ahead of the Spaniard.
‘Chucky’s first Dakar victory makes him just the second Aussie to do it, following Toby Price’s two wins in 2016 and 2018. Crucially, he’s the first rider to lead the entirety of the rally since Marc Coma’s masterclass in 2009.
5th - No.60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing (IMSA)
The No.60 Acura came home second at the 24 hours of Daytona, just seconds off of the win. It was still a good result for drivers Felix Rosenqvist, Tom Blomqvist, Scott Dixon and Christian Braun.
However the second place wasn’t without trouble, during the early hours of darkness Felix Rosenqvist got caught up with a GTD car and spun at turn five, dropping them from second, to outside the top five. Later on, the car would also suffer from some front nose damage, causing a loss in pace, again putting them out of the battle for first until their eventual pit stop to repair the broken Acura.
This wasn’t enough to deter the crew, fighting back from each setback to be within the lead battle heading into the final laps. After overtaking the No.6 Porsche for third, Tom Blomqvist set after the No.7 but it wasn’t to be. The No.60 crew ended up behind the No.7 in Daytona, and behind them again in our rankings in third.
6th - Antonio Felix da Costa (Formula E)
Antonio Felix da Costa would have remained gutted at missing out on victory for the second race weekend in a row. However, he would have more to cheer, for he took the championship lead after finishing second, this time without the fastest lap point.
Having started as the second Porsche, da Costa played second fiddle to pole-sitter Wehrlein, who initially led off the line for the race. As the race wore on, the Portuguese driver battled his teammate in the stadium section, as well as ceding the lead to Dennis’ Andretti, before snatching it back before the first safety car of the race.
However, he was powerless to reel back the charging Nissan of Rowland, who utilised the extra power and all-wheel drive to breach da Costa’s tight defence into turn 12 to take the lead. Try as he might, da Costa wouldn’t be able to catch the Nissan driver, and would settle for second.
Yet, in a series where consistency is worth its weight in gold, da Costa took the championship lead, sitting 12 points above the next best driver in the standings, two rounds in. A worthy contender for a spot on DIVEBOMB’s Power Rankings for January.
7th - Elfyn Evans (WRC)
The British rally driver finished the first day of Rally Monte-Carlo just 2s behind leader Thierry Neuville. The next morning Evans capitalised on rival Neuvilles critical error (which saw him go straight at a hairpin), and took the lead. A half-spin on the ice in the afternoon put the Brit back to second place, a position he would trade back-and-forth with Adrien Fourmaux on Saturday.
There was no room for error on Sunday as Evans had to hold off Fourmaux, Kalle Rovanperä, and a late charging Ott Tänak. Evans stayed strong under pressure to claim the second spot on the podium (and complete a Toyota 1-2) despite kissing a bank in the slippery final stage.
Additionally, Evans earnt 5 extra points for winning “Super Sunday”. This leaves his Toyota second place in the overall standings (behind Sebastian Ogier, who will not complete a full WRC championship this year), with a strong 17 points between himself and reigning champion Neuville.
8th - No.65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports (IMSA)
Driven to the win in GTD Pro at Daytona by Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch and Dennis Olsen, the No.65 marked a return to the top step for Ford in America's premier endurance event.
When it comes to the GTD classes in IMSA, it can be difficult to stay out of trouble with the level of competition and competitiveness of drivers, but the No.65 crew managed to do just that for 24 hours, and were rewarded with the winners' trophy.
For the most of the race, the trio of drivers kept the car in and around contention, staying in the top three for a large chunk of the morning, and took control of the GTD Pro field after the final safety car, winning over the No.3 Corvette and sister No.64 Ford, deserving a spot on our list.
9th - Pascal Wehrlein (Formula E)
Although Wehrlein took pole, becoming the most successful qualifier around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, he would fail to emulate his drive from a year prior, when he converted pole into victory. This time, he would only finish third.
Still, third marked another successful finish around this venue, with Wehrlein taking his fourth podium in succession at the venue. The German racer rebounded excellently after a huge crash at Sao Paulo, one that saw the Porsche racer flip into the barrier, and walk away safe from.
Wehrlein scrapped hard with da Costa, eventually losing out to his Portuguese teammate in the mid-race scraps, before losing out to Rowland’s Nissan at turn 7 after the restart. He would eventually fend off 2023 winner Dennis to finish third, taking his first podium of the year, and his first points in a Formula E race in season 11.
A strong comeback from Wehrlein, and one that earns a spot on DIVEBOMB’s Power Rankings for January.
10th - No.24 BMW M Team RLL (IMSA)
It was a race filled with ups and downs for Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen and Phillip Eng, who eventually finished fourth overall, a lap down on the leaders.
Despite this, the pole sitting crew were in contention for much of the race, battling it out with the two Porsches for the lead. After an excellent first two stints for Dries Vanthoor, it was capped by a mistake pulling into the pit box, colliding with the pit wall on his way in, a bad omen telling future fortunes.
After battling for the lead for much of the race thereafter, Vanthoor would make contact with a GTD with just over an hour remaining, causing damage to the front of the car.
This damage would result in some heavy porpoising down the straights and eventually it would be too much, Vanthoor having to pull the car into the pits for repairs. They would finish fourth, but due to the pace of the car and its drivers before the incident, they make the final cut for our list.
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