The Formula 1 season is coming to an end, and with 2 races left in this year’s campaign, SBOTOP provides you with the overachievers as well as the underachievers in what was an exhilarating F1 season.
With some drivers making late-season strides and some slowly going on a decline, Formula 1 2023 odds favourite Max Verstappen has been the only one who has dominated the sport since the first Grand Prix in Bahrain.
But aside from Max’s majestic reign over Formula 1, here are driver takeaways that should be relevant until the end of the season and even up to the start of the 2024 campaign.
Overachievers: Verstappen, Norris, and Alonso
To no one’s surprise, 2023 world champion Max Verstappen tops the list of this season’s overachievers. Red Bull Racing have done a terrific job of providing Max with a rocket ship that he could dominate the entire paddock with, and Max did exactly that.
The 26-year-old has already cemented his legacy as one of the best drivers the sport has ever seen. This season, Max has already bagged a whopping 17 first-place finishes, and at this rate, he most definitely can add on to his impressive haul with two more wins in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
The Dutchman’s dominance this campaign has been prodigious, clinching his third Drivers Championship with five races left in the season. After winning the championship in Qatar, Max didn’t slack off even a little, as he continued to crush the competition by winning all the Grand Prix that came after.
Meanwhile, over at McLaren, Lando Norris found another gear to his drive after budding teammate Oscar Piastri outperformed him in Suzuka and Qatar. It seems like all the young Brit needed to elevate his drive was a little nudge and a looming threat from a promising teammate.
Norris stood on the podium five times in the last six races, and although he has yet to win a Grand Prix, he’s shaping up to be Verstappen’s closest rival. Max is in a league of his own, but it is evident that Lando is in a tier of his own as well. If the 23-year-old can keep his pace and even improve on it, it won’t take long for fans to see Lando atop the highest platform of the Formula 1 podium.
But even though we are seeing a new generation of drivers taking over the Formula 1 grid, one can’t shrug off what Fernando Alonso has been doing over at Aston Martin this year.
His performance this season is the epitome of a driver getting as much as possible out of the car. The two-time World Champion currently sits sixth in the 2023 Driver Standings with 198 points, only 28 points behind Lewis Hamilton.
One of the most underrated Formula 1 2023 news is how the 42-year-old veteran single-handedly carried Aston Martin to Constructors contention while getting multiple podium finishes along the way. Aston Martin sits in fifth place in the Constructors Standings with 261 points and could possibly overtake McLaren in the fourth spot by the end of the season.
Underachievers: Perez, Stroll, Leclerc
It’s unfair to put any driver beside Max Verstappen and expect similar results, but this is the reality for Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez. The 33-year-old has won two races this season, and is currently in second place in the Drivers’ Standings, behind only to his teammate Verstappen. But even though he is equipped with the fastest car and the best team on the grid, Perez hasn’t really set himself apart from other drivers who are having ups and downs to their season themselves.
Checo has not produced a podium finish for Red Bull Racing in the last six races, and has retired twice since the Japan GP. Due to his poor performance during the latter part of the 2023 campaign, he finds himself only 32 points ahead of Merc’s Lewis Hamilton, who to his standards, is having a rough season.
But fortunately for Checo, it seems like his team remains confident in his drive, and will continue to ride with him as their second driver. “We’ll give him all the support we can to ensure that he finishes second [in the drivers’ championship] but there’s no prerequisite that if he doesn’t finish second, you’re out.” Red Bull Racing Principal Chris Horner stated.
Another driver who is getting outperformed by their teammate is Lance Stroll. Fernando Alonso has been running laps around Stroll all season long. Alonso has scored 198 points, while Stroll, with the same car, has only managed to score 63 points.
Frustrations ramp up in the Aston Martin garage all throughout the year, as their 25-year-old driver has failed to score a single point in nine races for his team this season. And with his demeanour on and off the track, one would ponder his future in Formula 1.
Speaking of frustrations, Ferrari have had multiple fumbles throughout the year. In my opinion, the most upsetting blunder Scuderia is currently dealing with is how they keep robbing Charles Leclerc, their own driver, of opportunities to succeed. Since the 2022 season, Charles has been a solid driver for Ferrari, and since the 2022 season, Ferrari have been doing a poor job of providing Leclerc with a competitive car and sound strategies.The Monegasque is a proven driver; in fact, he is the second driver with the most pole positions this season, with four. But this achievement comes bittersweet, as he becomes the driver with the most pole positions without a championship. Leclerc now has 21 pole positions without a championship, while the previous record was held by Valtteri Bottas with 20 pole positions.
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