With another F1 season now over, it is time to reflect on seven drivers who have stood out across the whole campaign.
Across 1,439 laps over 22 Grands Prix plus six sprint races, there have been plenty of thrills and spills plus record-breaking moments whilst some drivers punched above their weights and overcame various challenges to stand out on the grid.
This year even saw one team dominate with an one-two championship finish despite contrasting performances across their garages, whilst another rose from a disastrous start to enjoy a now rare win and several podium finishes.
Now here is my take on the seven top drivers of the 2023 season, and there is only one driver to start with.
Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
Verstappen has by far been the best driver on the grid in 2023 with a totally mature performance complete with raw pace and dominance, as he took a third conscutive title albeit finally without some sort of controversy surrounding his title-winning moment.
In fact, Verstappen had been so dominant aside from Singapore which didn’t suit Red Bull at all that there isn’t much to be said about his record breaking campaign, so here are a list of records that the Dutchman set across the season.
- First driver to lead 1003 laps in a single season
- Most wins in a season – 23 (19 Grands Prix + 4 Sprints)
- Most consecutive race wins – 12 (10 Grands Prix + 2 Sprints)
- Highest percentage of Grand Prix wins in a single season – 86.36%
- Most wins from pole position in a single season – 12
- Most Sprint wins in a single season – 4
- Most podium finishes in a Grand Prix in a single season – 21
- Most points scored in a single season – 575
- Most hat-tricks (pole, fastest lap and win) in a single season – 6
You would therefore be found hard to criticise Verstappen much other than his moaning over team radio about technical issues at times if pushd, because his on-track performances have been super mature except for a couple of dirty moments in Las Vegas.
To put it simple, Verstappen has been a class above the entire field all season long so it will take something dramatic for him to not enjoy similar if better form in 2024.
Lando Norris (McLaren)
Having spent his four seasons in F1 up against experienced rivals as his teammate at McLaren, 2023 certainly saw Norris rise to a new level as he became the lead driver alongside rookie – Oscar Piastri.
It is easy to question a driver’s ability to step up as the lead driver after spending so long as the shadow driver behind experienced teammates, yet Norris just rose to the challenge like a duck to water even in spite of McLaren’s awful start to the season.
Austria though was the turning point for Norris’ season because once he got his hands on McLaren’s upgrade, he finally had a car which allowed him to showcase his raw pace and challenge Verstappen briefly for the win at Silverstone and Sao Paulo without success.
Even his stats highlights how well Norris has fared this season because he comfortably beat Piastri 19-9 in Qualifying head-to-head, and 20-8 in the race head to head, although if split the sprint then Piastri was just as good as Norris with a 3-3 record in Sprint Races.
Norris however can still make mistakes as saw in Abu Dhabi Qualifying which cost him a front-row start, but he is still young at 24 years-old so isn’t the finished article yet despite his extensive F1 experience and has shown that he a strong lead driver now.
Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
Considering that only he and Williams’ Logan Sargeant were total rookies this season (Nyck De Vries drove for Williams in one round last season), Piastri has easily been the stand-out rookie by far and has aguably had a more entertaining season than many top drivers.
We also shouldn’t forget that McLaren had delivered a poor car at the start of the season which hampered Piastri’s performance, which showed with five points in the first nine races yet the Melbourne-born Australian suddenly found form at Silverstone.
That particular race saw Piastri play the role of teammate to Norris impressively well for his first time fighting at the front of the F1 field, only denied a podium by a unfortunate safety car timing but that drive proved to be the confidence boost that he needed for the rest of season.
Belgium and Qatar in particular were highlights as Piastri was denied his first win in a wet Belgian Sprint after briefly leading for the first time, only to go and achieve that maiden win with a briliantly executed drive in the Qatar Sprint where his tyre management was brilliant.
That particular result also meant that Piastri was the first rookie to win a race in F1 since Lewis Hamilton in 2007, underlining the Australian’s serious talent which had triggered a legal battle between McLaren and Alpine for his signature in summer 2022.
Piastri however naturally experienced typical rookie moments at time like in his race-ending crash in the Belgian GP, managing his race without brake-by-wire system in Miami, yet he has managed to shine above those little moments to be a stand-out star of the season.
Now if McLaren can avoid a repeat of their early-season’s woes and have a competitive car from the start in 2024, Piastri definitely could be a regular challenger for the podium and is an emerging top driver if he continues to develop like he has done this season.
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
Amidst initial criticism of his move to Aston Martin for this season, Alonso has absolutely put his critics in the shade with a fantastic run of top-ten finishes in 16 of the first 17 races – which included podiums in six of the opening eight races alone.
Late dips in consistency due to a mixture of bad luck and reliability however saw him miss out on a top-three championship finish, but fourth is a strong feat for a driver of Alonso’s calibre in a car which he has clearly outdriven ccompared to Lance Stroll’s issues this season.
Alonso though has had a season which any 42 year-old would dream of and totally dominated teammate, Stroll in a fantastic season for the Spaniard in his first campaign at Aston Martin.
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
As the only non Red Bull driver to take a Grand Prix win this season in Singapore, Carlos Sainz deserves huge credit for his achievements this season, especially given that he had lost both the Qualifying and Race head-to-heads to teammate, Charles Leclerc.
Sainz’s consistency has also been considerably impressive with top-six finishes in 16 of the 20 races that he has started, which shows just how well he has driven whilst his Singapore win was a defensive masterclass in controlling the race in the lead despite never really building a proper gap.
In fact, Sainz’s season has been so brilliantly understated that there is little to say other than he has been awesomely consistent except for the final two rounds, which cost him a shot at fourth in the standings.
Alex Albon (Williams)
Having steadily found his feet back in F1 last season after spending 2021 on the sidelines, this year saw Albon show more of his quality with seven top-ten finishes as he spearheaded Wiliams’ progress to seventh in the constructors’ championship.
Albon’s single-lap pace also has been a huge highlight of his season with 7/8 Q3 appearances and a season’s best qualifying finish of fourth in Zandvoort, en-route to a total clean sweep over teammate, Sargeant in their Qualifying head-to-head.
The ex Red Bull driver has also driven some excellently strategic races to finish in the points, especially in Monza where he fought off Norris in a cracking performance for seventh, which showed just what this Williams car was capable of in the hands of a solid driver like Albon.
In summary, this season has been a campaign of positive progress for Albon and Williams with the British-Thai driver certainly ready to fight in the midfield more next season.
Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri)
Despite only participating in five Grands Prix as a replacement for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson certainly proved to be a surprise talent who quickly took to the AlphaTauri car as he drove from the back of the grid to 13th on debut in Zandvoort, Netherlands.
The 21 year-old only continued to improve and find more confidence with a 11th placed finish in Italy before an even more impressive drive in Singapore, where he not only reached Q3 but also was the fastest driver in Qualifying out of AlphaTauri and Red Bull drivers on pure merit.
That particular achievement was more notable if consider that it was only his third qualifying session in F1 and shouldn’t be forgotten, even though he endured two tough weekends in Japan and Qatar – of which the latter was his first experience of a F1 Sprint weekend.
Lawson though will spend 2024 on the sidelines as reserve driver but if he can get a drive for 2025, he certainly will be a driver to watch out for.
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