F1 2023 Drivers ranked - the best and worst of the best drivers in the world

 

    

The 2023 Formula 1 season has come to a close, some drivers have had historical and impressive seasons while the other end of the spectrum lies drivers who must buck up if they want to ensure they are still seated in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car come 2025.

Here are all 22 drivers in F1 ranked:

22. Nyck De Vries 

  

  I can't be the only one who's forgotten Nyck de Vries even drove in F1 this year, but who can blame me? Coming off of an impressive debut at the Italian Grand Prix last season where he managed to earn points with a 9th place finish, his performances this year made that feat look like he was being carried by his car. 

Qualifying dead last in his debut at Bahrain and being constantly gapped by Tsunoda in the races to being involved in accidents in Baku, Miami or Canada. It is no surprised that Helmut Marko decided to drop the 27 year-old dutchman and all the more regret his choice of taking the risk of signing someone from outside the Red Bull circle.

21. Logan Sargeant 

  

  Mr. What the F is a kilometer himself. Unfortunately, at times during his freshman season in Formula 1 he made it seem that he really did not know what a kilometer was as he often times lacked behind his team-mate Alex Albon in qualifying, being clean sweeped by the Thai driver by not outqualifying him even once this season. 

 Though the results may seem bad on paper, it might be excused as him simply not having the same car as Alex, with team principal James Vowles saying that he did not get upgrades at the back-end of the season. However, this does not excuse the surreal number of mistakes he has made. Crashing out of qualifying in Zandvoort, Suzuka and Azerbaijan. 

  Being re-signed for 2024, Logan must take his sophomore year to properly showcase the talent and speed that he has shown glimpses of this year in races like the US Grand Prix where he sealed his singular and only point of the season.

  While his teammate consistently brought that Williams into Q2 or Q3 at times, Logan has been struggling to even make his way out of Q1. The same can be said for the next driver on the list.

20. Lance Stroll

  7th year in the game. Another veteran team-mate he has to try and even get close to. 

  This was the year Lance should have proved that he is worthy of being in an F1 seat let alone be something of a success in the future. Instead, he was constantly lacking behind his team-mate Fernando Alonso. As the Spaniard was consistently getting podiums in the first half of the season, Lance was consistently finishing borderline in the points. Though it may be excused as recovering from a wrist injury he had sustained in pre-season which makes his 6th place finish in the season opener impressive.

  Crashes in qualifyings such as Belgium and Singapore along with the disastrous race that was Monaco where Lance failed to turn the car in the wet conditions certainly brought his season down a lot.

  Not to mention the drama that ensued when he pushed his trainer after getting knocked out of Q1 at Qatar.

 A staggering 134 points off of his team-mate, Lance has 2024 to show his team and his father that he is worth investing for the future.

19. Sergio Perez

  The RB19 is Formula 1's most dominant car statistically, but you wouldn't have guessed that if you watch how Sergio Perez did this season.

  Failing to reach Q3 a staggering total of 9 times, 3 of it being from Q1, while his team-mate Max Verstappen comfortably brings that car to the top 5 of the grid week in week out.

  Of course, it is a big ask for Checo to match or beat Max, but can't he at least be somewhat close? While Max is comfortably gapping the field and winning races for about 80% of the season, Checo has been struggling to reach the podium at times with the Mexican finishing in the top 3 9 times this season as compared to Max's 21. 

  However, the Mexican has some positives to take away from the seasons, with wins in Jeddah and Baku. However, with the art piece in car form that is the RB19, you'd think he'll have more.

  With one last year on his contract left, Checo has to show Red Bull why he should continue working for the Milton Keynes based team or he'd have to go to the Alfa Romeo motorhome to learn Chinese lessons from Zhou Guanyu.

18 - Kevin Magnussen 

  A rather forgettable season for K-Mag and the Haas team with their car only being good in qualifying only to disappear in the races. 

  3 separate P10 finishes will have Kevin leaving 2023 with 3 points and not one to write home about but an impressive 4th place in qualifying in Miami makes this season not 100% forgettable.

  However, some highlights may be his racecraft, with standout overtakes on Tsunoda in Saudi Arabia and Sargeant in Monaco with the latter being nominated for the Crypto.com Overtake of the Year Award.

17 - Zhou Guanyu

  Coming off a good rookie season where he was close to experienced team-mate Bottas, Zhou Guanyu had a lot to prove in 2023, with the looming threat of Sauber Academy junior Theo Pourchaire in Formula 2 who looked to be a strong contender for the championship. 

  His 2023 season was quite stale, largely due to the underperforming Alfa Romeo. However, he was closer to team-mate Bottas in the race head to head with him finishing ahead of Valtteri for 9 races, but was less than the Finn's 13. An improvement from the 14-7 in 2022.

  A main highlight for Zhou would be in the Hungaroring where he qualified an astonishing 5th place.

Only to throw it all away with a poor start and a collision with Daniel Ricciardo in turn 1...

  2024 is a big year for Zhou as he has to prove that he has the pace and speed to keep himself in the F1 circus as failure to do so may make the newly renamed Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber look towards Frenchman Theo Pourchaire, who will be racing in Super Formula.

16 - Nico Hulkenberg 

  Hulk is back! After 3 years out of the sport, the 36 year-old German has shown that he still has it, beating his team-mate Magnussen in both qualifying and race head-to-head, with 13-9 in qualifying and an impressive 15-7 in the race.

  Impressive feats such as qualifying on the front row on merit in Canada and a standout F1 Sprint performance in Austria, where he got 6th place.

  While he often drowned in the field due to the underperforming Haas, Nico should be satisfied with how his F1 return has been.

 

15 - Valtteri Bottas

  Valtteri Bottas. Makeshift Australian, Naturist, Nude Model and he also races cars.

  An alright season for the Finn in his 11th season of Formula 1 saw him garner 10 points in his Alfa Romeo and beating his young team-mate Zhou in the championship and the qualifying and race head to heads. 

  Consistent Q2 appearances and glimpses of speed such as qualifying in Hungary were the Finn's highs of the year. Though most of the time it just felt like he was merely existing.

14 - Daniel Ricciardo

  The honey badger is back in the Red Bull circus! Replacing Nyck de Vries who was shown the door by the Red Bull hierarchy and he performed better than the dutchman. Almost matching Tsunoda in the races 3-4 in the head to head with the same number in qualifying. Definitely closer than De Vries.

  A standout drive in Mexico where he finished in P7 earned the Aussie his only points of the season in a race where he qualified an amazing 4th place, ahead of Sergio Perez who's seat he will be targeting for in 2025. He was also fighting faster cars and drivers such as the Mercedes of George Russell. All while fresh out of recovering from a wrist injury he sustained in his 3rd weekend back in Zandvoort.

  2024 is make or break for Daniel as he has to show that he still has what it takes to have one last dance with the main Red Bull team in 2025.    

13 - Liam Lawson

  A driver that certainly no one expected to see on this list at the start of the year, Liam Lawson stood in for Daniel Ricciardo for 5 races while the Aussie recovered from his wrist injury.

  The 21 year-old Kiwi definitely capitalized the opportunity, an eventful debut in Zandvoort where he overtook a Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as well as unlapping himself from race leader Max Verstappen. Followed by a strong showing in Monza and more notably Singapore, where he got into Q3 and not without a challenge as he had to knock out both of the Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. He then went on to seal 2 points for himself with a solid 9th place finish.

  With Christian Horner saying that he will no doubt have a seat for 2025 as the run of races he stood in left an impression on the Red Bull boss, the future holds exciting things for the Kiwi as he takes a gap year to be a reserve driver and will be there if the opportunity arises to fill in again.

12 - Esteban Ocon

  It's hard to describe how the season has been for Esteban Ocon. From the amazing highs of his podium in Monaco to the gut-wrenching lows of his numerous engine failures that has plagued his season, with the most heartbreaking one coming from Singapore where his Alpine broke down at the exit of turn 1 while he was sitting in an impressive 6th position.

  Being in the team for 3 years, Esteban is now expected to lead the team and outperform his team-mate Pierre Gasly who is new to the team, but the reality is that he has lost the qualifying battle to Pierre. Some might argue that Esteban would be ahead of Pierre in the standings without his misfortune, but that was to be expected of Esteban as Pierre will have gone through a culture shock, moving out of the Red Bull circus to an unfamiliar environment.

11 - Pierre Gasly

After 6 years of being in the roller coaster that is the AlphaTauri and Red Bull team, Pierre now has a new chapter in his career, pairing up with childhood rival Esteban Ocon to make it an all French lineup in a French team, a lot is expected of Pierre to prove himself in an unfamiliar environment.

  He delivered with solid performances in the Belgian Sprint as well as a good podium in the entertaining, rain-filled Dutch Grand Prix.

  Finishing ahead of his team-mate who is in his 4th year with the French outfit makes this season a stepping stone for Pierre as he looks to build on this foundation and go all out in his sophomore year with Alpine.

10 - Yuki Tsunoda

  After two mundane years in Formula 1 with glimpses of speed and good performances, this was the year where Yuki had to try and show consistency in his performances so that he can prove to the Red Bull hierarchy that they have to think about him for the future. 

  Against experienced single-seater world champion Nyck de Vries on the other side of the garage certainly does not make it look easy on paper, but he delivered. Constantly outqualifying the 27 year-old Dutchman and essentially ending his short career.                                        

  A new challenge arose in the form of experienced driver Daniel Ricciardo and new kid on the block Liam Lawson. Worringly, Tsunoda would get beaten by those 2 on numerous occasions, but it was still evenly matched between him and the two Oceanic drivers.

  Consistent points and top performances such as the one in Abu Dhabi showed that Yuki has the quality to stay in F1 for the future, but he has to take a step up against experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo next year.

9 - George Russell

   George Russell was a pleasant surprise in 2022, beating his 7-time world champion team-mate in equal machinery by 35 points and even winning Mercedes' only race of 2022 at Brazil. This year was the year where George had to build on that freshman year for the Silver Arrows and establish himself as the new big thing at Mercedes, made better by the fact Mercedes reintroduced a sidepod concept meaning the car should have been quicker than it's 2022 disaster.

  Instead, he awoke to the harsh reality that there is a reason why Lewis Hamilton is the sport's most successful driver to date. Despite matching his veteran team-mate in qualifying with both drivers outqualifying one another 11 times, he would often be outclassed in the race, losing out to Lewis 15 times over the course of the season. 16 if you count Lewis' unfortunate disqualification at United States.

  Amassing only 2 podiums was underwhelming compared to Lewis' 6. 59 points off him in the championship as well as the only driver in the top 8 in the standings to not get 200 points, this season is a learning curve for George and a reminder that he indeed has to step up for 2024 if he wants to show Mercedes that he is a future prospect and world champion material as he had proven in 2022.

8 - Alex Albon

  Having returned to the sport after a year on Red Bull's sidelines in 2021, Alexander Albon made a return with Williams under new ownership via Dorliton Capital. A new chapter for the team, as well as Alex's career, began well. With the British-Thai driver amassing 4 points which was two more than team-mate Nicholas Latifi in a severely underperforming car. With Alex annihilating Latifi and essentially driving him out of the sport.

  With his new team-mate young hotshot American Logan Sargeant, Alex was expected to lead the team and of course, beat his rookie team-mate. He managed to accomplish both, with Alex never once being outqualified by the 22 year-old, clean sweeping the qualifying head-to-head 22-0. 

  Moreover, consistent Q2 and Q3 appearances made this season a memorable one for Alex, managing 7th and 8th place finishes on merit which led to him earning 27 out of 28 of Williams' total points tally of the year and wanting to continue this hot form into 2024, where he will hope that the Williams car will be a regular in the upper half of the field so that he can add to his points tally, or maybe a surprise result here and there.

7 - Oscar Piastri

  A year off on Alpine's sidelines after winning the Formula 2 championship in 2021, Oscar was hoping to fufill his racing urges and wipe the cobwebs off in 2023, where he signed for McLaren (with his agreement!), replacing countryman Daniel Ricciardo who underperformed in his stint at McLaren that led to him being dropped.

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  Oscar fared well in his first year in Formula 1, with the McLaren struggling in the first 9 races of the season where Oscar picked up 5 points with his maiden one coming from a 9th place finish at his home race at Australia. 

  After that, McLaren's performance took a quick 180, with Oscar finding himself qualifying in 3rd for the British Grand Prix. He held on to that 3rd spot until an unlucky timing with the safety car meant that homeboy Lewis Hamilton would claim that final podium place instead. 

  Oscar continued impressing after that, narrowly missing out on a podium at Hungary, but would then go on to qualify on the front row in the Sprint Shootout at Spa, with him leading a few laps until the dominant Max Verstappen eventually retook the lead. Oscar would go on to finish 2nd, which was impressive for a rookie.

  His sprint luck would not end there however, with Oscar taking the Sprint pole and Sprint victory at Qatar, one week after his maiden podium at Japan. He would go on to finish in 2nd under the Lusail lights, ahead of team-mate Lando Norris. 

  It is safe to say that Oscar has most certainly been F1's best rookie in awhile, more specifically since maybe Charles Leclerc in 2018. In his sophomore year in the sport next year, Oscar would hope to use his knowledge he gained from his first year in F1 to get closer to Lando and maybe even compete for more podiums should the McLaren car's performance allow it. 

  The ceiling is high for young Oscar, now it's a case of whether he wants to jump high enough to reach it.

6 - Carlos Sainz

  After finishing ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc in the 2021 championship, the Monegasque driver bit back harder in 2022, with Charles finishing 62 points ahead of Carlos in a more competitive Ferrari car. This year Carlos has to bounce back from 2022 and hopefully match and maybe beat his team-mate again.

  F1's only non Red-Bull winner of the year, Carlos Sainz had a good 2023 season. With a car more suited to his understeery style, he had the edge over his team-mate Leclerc in the standings, until the last few races where he made costly errors.

  The first half of the season was good for Carlos, consistently finishing in the top 6 positions in races, which helped him garner a good amount of points. He was close to team-mate Leclerc who had 3 podiums to his name at that point, by being only 7 points behind the Monegasque's 99 points. 

  He had a good 2nd half to the season, with impressive performances such as the pole position in front of the tifosi in Monza, which he finished 3rd in the race right ahead of Leclerc. Before going on to win the very next race at Singapore, to become the season's only non Red Bull race winner. Things looked good for Carlos at the point, consistently finishing races and capitalizing on his team-mates rather unfortunate luck.

Despite this, he lost to his team-mate who had an even stronger back-end to the season, losing massive points in the final 2 rounds in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, with the latter including him spending qualifying and the race outside of the top 10 while his team-mate managed to get two 2nd place finishes in a row to beat him in the championship by 6 points, maybe even more if Charles was not disqualified from the US GP.

 A seemingly underwhelming season for Carlos, he got outclassed by Leclerc in both qualifying and the races in the head-to-head.

  Carlos has shown that he can be consistent this year, being there to pick up the scraps and even having the pace to beat his team-mate and many of the leading pack. For 2024, Carlos has to turn that into consistent good results if he wants to beat his team-mate Leclerc again and show Ferrari they can commit to him long-term.

  

5 - Charles Leclerc

  Ferrari's golden boy. Charles Leclerc would enter his 5th season with the Scuderia after a mighty 2022 season, where he finished in 2nd in the championship standings, even putting on a strong title charge in the first half of the season before the Red Bulls pulled way ahead of the reds in terms of car performance and instead, they were closer to Mercedes. Charles would hope that the SF-23 is a step forward from the already striking SF-22.

  This would not be the case as the 2023 Ferrari would prove to be the 3rd or even 4th fastest. Despite this, Charles would go on to finish on the podium 6 times in the year, 3 in the first half and 3 in the second half. Even claiming pole position an outstanding 5 times across the season, which is mightily impressive considering he was up against the most dominant F1 car of all time. Though unfortunately, the RB19's race pace would see Leclerc convert none of the pole positions but it does not mean it's any less impressive.

  Although he had good results, Leclerc's season was plagued with bad luck, losing big points in numerous occasions. Losing 3rd place at Texas due to disqualification, losing a front row start due to his Ferrari's hydraulics failing on the formation lap, a 3rd place finish in the closing stages of the season opener at Bahrain in the final few laps of the race. Which makes it all the more impressive that he was able to finish joint 4th in the drivers' championship.

   This made him fall behind team-mate Sainz in the championship until he bounced back in the final two races, with a standout performance in Las Vegas where he took pole position and was on to win the race, until a safety car closed the gap between him and the rest of the field and he unfortunately fell behind the Red Bull(s) to finish in 2nd place after a breathtaking overtake that saw it win the Crypto.com Overtake of the Year award.

  With an impressive back-end of the season, Leclerc will want his 2024 Ferrari to maybe give him the illusive drivers' title in red, something he has worked his whole life to achieve. 

4 - Lewis Hamilton

 

  On the back of a disappointing 2022 season, where the great Lewis Hamilton failed to win a race for the first time in his 15 long career and getting beaten by new team-mate George Russell in the championship, Lewis will hope to regain his championship-winning form in his 11th season in his iconic partnership with Mercedes. 

  However, the car would not be a race-winning car that Lewis is used to, in spite of bringing back the iconic black livery that saw Lewis take his historic 7th world championship in. Despite this, Lewis would prove to be one of the best on the grid despite his age of 38. Garnering 6 podiums across the season, which would be 7 if not for his disqualification out of 2nd place at the United States Grand Prix for an illegal plank height. 

   Moreover, a historic 104th pole position at his favourite Hungaroring showed the world that Lewis Hamilton still has it in him to be among the top drivers on the grid which is more backed up with his 3rd place in the standings which could have been 2nd as he was rapidly catching up to the underperforming Perez in the 2nd half of the season.

  He outshined team-mate George Russell, beating him 15 times in the race, but it was evenly split in qualifying with both drivers beating each other 11 times.

  Aging like fine wine, Lewis will want 2024 to re-spark the winning combination of him and the Mercedes car after 2 difficult seasons. 

3 - Lando Norris

  Into his 5th season of F1, Lando is now expected to lead McLaren to potential success, with young gun Oscar Piastri filling in the other side of the garage in place of the experienced Daniel Ricciardo.

  A rocky start of the season saw Lando get knocked out of Q1 on several occasions and even finishing in a low 17th place on four occasions. Things took a quick turnaround after Austria, with McLaren's upgrades bringing them to the tip of the field. Lando proved this by qualifying in 3rd place at Austria's sprint shootout and finishing in P4 in the main race.

  Things would properly start to kick into gear at the British Grand Prix, with Lando starting on the front row and even taking the lead in the early stages of the race before getting repassed by the inevitable Max Verstappen. He would cling on to finish in 2nd place, a familiar spot he would find himself throughout the season consistently, finishing there for a total of 6 out of his impressive 7 podiums across the season. 

  He finished the season in 6th position in the championship, which arguably could have been as high as 4th position if not for his costly errors in Las Vegas, where he crashed out in a heavy crash, and Qatar where he let a front row start slip through his fingers via exceeding track limits despite looking like he was a strong win contender throughout the weekend. He also saw his young team-mate Piastri win an F1 race/sprint before him. 

  In spite of the errors, it is still a season for Lando to look back and be pleased as it is one of his best F1 seasons to date. Displaying consistency and strong performances across the 2nd half of the season.

  Being 2nd to the mighty Max Verstappen comfortably on numerous occasions across the season showed that with better machinery, Lando has what it takes to challenge the top drivers and maybe gain that illusive first win next year, a win that has been haunting him since it slid away from his hands into the barriers at a wet afternoon in Sochi.

2 - Fernando Alonso

  Aging like fine wine, 42 year-old Spaniard and F1 legend Fernando Alonso enters his 19th season in Formula 1 in new colours, donning the British racing green of the iconic Aston Martin after two underwhelming seasons at Alpine, a new chapter awaits for the old man.

  The Aston Martin was immediately a standout as Fernando found himself in a position to challenge the Mercedes and Ferrari for podiums. With an impressive drive at Bahrain seeing him make moves throughout the field to finish a quality 3rd place, with a Crypto.com Overtake of the Year nominee move on Lewis Hamilton down the tricky downhill and sharp turn 10 that saw him move up into 4th, before a Ferrari explosion promoted him up into the podium spots.

  More impressive drives would follow with two more 3rd place finishes in Jeddah and Miami, with the former saw him taking the lead off the start. A 2nd place finish at the tricky streets of Monaco, unaided by the mixed conditions showed the world that Fernando still has alot on his plate and is ready to challenge the big dogs of the grid. 

  However, the Aston Martin's performance would decline towards the mid part of the season, but that did not deter Fernando from more impressive performances, with a 2nd place finish in another wet and chaotic race at Zandvoort topped off with one of his best drives of his illustrious careers in Brazil where he pipped Sergio Perez, who was in quicker machinery, on the line to achieve his final podium of the season. A nail-biting finish that saw it win the FIA Action of the Year award.

  The incredibly young Spaniard will hope that Aston Martin can replicate their early season form in 2024 as he looks to finally get win number 33 after a whole decade since his last win on home soil in 2013.

1 - Max Verstappen

  No one even came close. No one even had a sniff of number 1 this year. No one else in the history of F1 could dominate a season like he did. Of course, the best driver of the season was Max Verstappen. An incredibly mind-blowing year of winning that can only be described in one word: Dominance.

  This season Max would break the following records: Most wins in a season (19), Highest win percentage in a season (86.35%), Most points in a single season (575), Most consecutive victories by a single driver (10), Most laps led by a single driver in a season (1000).

  The scariest part is that Max could have very well won every single race this season. With an engine problem in qualifying at Saudi Arabia making him start at the back of the field, where he crawled back to 2nd place and getting the fastest lap of the race, or an unfortunate Safety Car timing during a pit-stop costing him the lead at Azerbaijan that dropped him to 2nd place where he would finish. 

  His only non top 2 finish of the season came in Singapore, where he still finished a mighty 5th place in a weekend where the Red Bull car looked like it was in the midfield, with both cars getting knocked out of Q2.

  All of those did not really matter in the end, with Max sweeping the floor every race with every victory he had. Averaging a gap of 13.363 seconds per race win (exclusive of Zandvoort and Australia, where late race red flags would shorten the advantage).

  This season was the peak performance of any F1 driver, with fans dreading a race weekend under the fear of hearing the Dutch National Anthem at the podium ceremony at the end of every race as they just knew he would win races uncontested.

  It is safe to say that it looks like no one can stop Max Verstappen for as long as him and Red Bull continue to be together as the partnership is just a match made in heaven.