Ranking the top 10 Formula 1 drivers of 2023

In many regards, 2023 was a one-dimensional F1 season as Max Verstappen crushed his competition decisively to cruise to the title, winning 19 of the 23 races in the process of claiming his third world title on the trot.

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and it was an engrossing season amid the best-of-the-rest all vying to be second best, along with the back of the field scrap over seventh in the constructors' championship. Carlos Sainz claimed the bragging rights with the sole non-Red Bull victory, echoing Ferrari's encroachment on McLaren's otherwise clean sweep of wins in 1988, but the competition he faced to do it mirrored the battle between Ferrari and Mercedes to sit behind the dominant Red Bull in the championship.

Aston Martin also raised its game significantly once bolstered by the marquee signing of Fernando Alonso and, as the team's form tailed off mid-season, faced competition from a resurgent McLaren once the Woking squad had overcome its dismal start to 2023. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri proved to be an effective line-up to make the most of the rejuvenated MCL60, once the team had got on track with its ambitious upgrade strategy.

There were more impressive results further back from some of the teams who were less frequently in the points, as they were embroiled in an almighty battle for valuable prize money from their constructors' placings.

Throughout every F1 season, Autosport produces race-by-race driver ratings based upon each individual's progress and execution within the grand prix. However, with the chance to reflect upon the season as a whole and contextualise each driver's season with the hands that they were dealt, we've come up with a ranking of the field and settled upon our top 10 drivers. These are the drivers who have enjoyed great results, shown brilliant performances over 2023, and transcended their machinery across the 22-race calendar. Without further ado, here is that ranking...

10. Nico Hulkenberg

Re-entry

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Hulkenberg outqualified team-mate Kevin Magnussen by 15-7 and outraced him by 13-9 in 2023

A surprise? Perhaps, but the German has earned his place, despite having to struggle with a severely flawed car, thanks to a series of strong qualifying efforts and pouncing on opportunities across the races in which Haas was not so severely hampered. There was rust to shake off after three years out, save for a handful of COVID-enforced cameos for Racing Point/Aston Martin, but Hulkenberg immediately broke into Q3 in his first race back in the saddle in Bahrain.

A shame, then, that Haas’s 2023 car was completely incompatible with the Pirelli tyre range, ensuring that the VF-23s would regress in race trim. His defensive efforts in Australia were excellent while warding off Lando Norris to claim a season-best seventh; had the last-gasp madness shaken out differently, he was within a sniff of a long-awaited podium. And, without a red-flag infringement in qualifying in Montreal, he’d have started on the front row alongside Max Verstappen.

Austria was the highlight, with two stunning qualifying efforts to secure eighth for the grand prix and fourth for the sprint. In the latter, he climbed to second before stabilising in sixth to show what Haas could be capable of, were it not so rubber-hungry.

Overall, the stats don’t lie: Hulkenberg outqualified team-mate Kevin Magnussen by 15-7 and outraced him by 13-9. Having chosen to roll back to the initial car design instead of persisting with the Austin upgrades, Hulkenberg put his car eighth on the grid for the Abu Dhabi finale, outqualifying Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly. JBL

9. Oscar Piastri

New entry

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Piastri won the sprint race in Qatar, and was intelligent enough to clean his off-line GP grid position in the process

Remember how Piastri arrived in F1 under substantial pressure following the court case over his 2023 services last year? Well, not that and little else seemed to faze the 22-year-old, who demonstrated wisdom beyond his years across his first campaign.

During McLaren’s struggles early in the season he showed enough pace to have Lando Norris declaring that “he's keeping me on my toes” after just three races, and Piastri scored his first points with a fine drive on home turf in Melbourne. This was followed by him successfully battling a severe stomach bug in Baku, but just missing out on more there.

Down moments included a lack of pace in the Monaco rain, a late off under pressure from Alex Albon in Canada, a corner-cutting pass on Liam Lawson late on in Italy, and his overly optimistic part in the Turn 1 crash with Carlos Sainz at Spa.

What impressed McLaren was his coolness to avoid “unnecessary stress”, as team boss Andrea Stella put it, his technical feedback, and how quickly he learned and adapted on the tracks he had never raced at before. The orange team was particularly pleased by his stunning performance to qualify second on the unforgiving Suzuka layout.

Piastri’s highest points ended up being sprint races – his early lead in the changing conditions at Spa, then winning the entertaining contest in Qatar, where he was intelligent enough to clean his off-line GP grid position while taking victory. He couldn’t replicate Norris’s highlights in grands prix, thanks largely to his overall inferior tyre management, but you sense he’s so smart that this weakness won’t remain for long. AK

8. George Russell

Down 4

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Russell was too often his own worst enemy in 2023

This was hardly Russell’s best year in F1. His second season at Mercedes yielded multiple mistakes amid his self-imposed pressure to perform. Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton were level in qualifying across the season, but the elder Briton was overall stronger in race trim. While Russell had been in the better qualifying form at the start of the year, outperforming Hamilton four times at the opening five rounds, he often fell behind in the races. His recovery from 12th on the grid to take third in Spain was an early-season highlight.

This was followed by an unforced error in Montreal, where Russell slid into the wall on the exit of Turn 9, causing ultimately terminal damage. He then had a run of results where he was largely outclassed by Hamilton. There was a smidgen of ill fortune among that run; at Zandvoort, his impressive third on the grid was undone by the decision to stay out on slicks. Singapore was the biggest blot on Russell’s copybook, when his efforts to claim the sole non-Red Bull win of 2023 ended in the barrier on the final lap of the race.

Late-season highlights included his recovery to fourth after being struck by Hamilton in Qatar, and his season-ending podium in Abu Dhabi to help Mercedes clinch the championship runner-up spot. Regardless, Russell was too often his own worst enemy, and arguably tried too hard to get a tune out of an often-recalcitrant W14. He’ll have to chalk this up as a character-building year. JBL

7. Carlos Sainz

No change

Photo by: Ferrari

Sainz was flawless in a complex race in Singapore to take the only non-Red Bull win of the season

For so long he was ahead of his team-mate in our ranking, mainly thanks to his impressive consistency with the peaky Ferrari SF-23 in the first half of the season and then that glorious purple patch after the summer break. But 2023 ended on rather a down note, just as Charles Leclerc really was taking the fight to Red Bull.

Let’s start with the good stuff, because it really was top-drawer. Sainz led the line for Ferrari with his calm and methodical approach when Leclerc was erratic in the early rounds, the Spaniard unfortunate to be so harshly penalised at the end in Australia given the small mistake he made in tagging Fernando Alonso was obliterated by the race’s third red flag. But what was really impressive was how, post-summer break and Ferrari’s much changed design coming on-song over longer stints, Sainz added searing qualifying speed to his armoury. He made massive efforts to be on top form over one lap early in weekends, and this was key to his pole at Monza, and battling drives there and at Zandvoort.

Come the end of the year, he slipped behind Leclerc again on both qualifying and race fronts, for example being unable to match his pace despite the other Ferrari having front-wing damage in Mexico, and his Abu Dhabi practice crash knocking his weekend off course. It was a tiny margin, yet he just ended up behind in our thinking. But what shouldn’t be forgotten, of course, was how brilliant he was to win in Singapore. Rapid in qualifying to claim another pole, then flawless in a complex race, particularly in thinking to give Lando Norris DRS as the pair of Mercedes bore down on them. AK

6. Charles Leclerc

Down 4

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Leclerc took three poles in the last five races and could have realistically won in Las Vegas

The first part of 2023 was, by all accounts, pretty dismal for Leclerc. A strong run to third in Bahrain was derailed by powertrain troubles, and Ferrari's electronics issues persisted in Saudi Arabia to force an early 10-place grid penalty to knock him out of his front-row start. The first-lap Turn 3 clash with Lance Stroll in Australia, however, was of Leclerc’s own making.

A resurgence in Baku looked to have kickstarted his year, with pole in both the sprint and grand prix, and he grabbed podium finishes in both. But he crashed in qualifying at the Miami round, and his hometown hoodoo continued at Monaco with a three-place grid penalty, which denied a potential podium.

Finishing second in Austria was impressive, while his Spa pole arrived by default thanks to Max Verstappen’s grid penalty on a weekend when Leclerc moved above Sainz in the points. Summer changes to the SF-23 worked in Sainz’s favour more, and Leclerc was outclassed in Monza and Singapore by his team-mate, but the Monegasque’s season started to come together in the final quarter.

He took three poles in the last five races and could have realistically won in Las Vegas, although this strong run of form was interrupted by his failure to start in Brazil and his plank-enforced disqualification in the US GP. Regardless, Leclerc had been the better of the two Ferrari drivers since Sainz’s Singapore win, and showed his growing tactical awareness in Abu Dhabi in Ferrari’s attempt to wrest second in the constructors’ championship. JBL

5. Alex Albon

New entry

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Albon was only knocked out in GP Q1s on five occasions and outqualified his team-mate a perfect 28-0

Get ready for some stats. Across the 28 sprint shootout and GP qualifying sessions in 2023, Albon defeated his Williams team-mate Logan Sargeant a perfect 28-0. Then in races they both completed without retirements altering the picture, Albon’s record was also unblemished. It should be noted that Sargeant was a rookie and Albon is now four years deep into his F1 career, yet that’s still a rare sweep.

What really boosts Albon’s ranking here is his qualifying speed, something for which we rewarded his Williams predecessor George Russell but has not been included in our race-only GP driver ratings this term. Again, the stats are impressive for Albon, who was only knocked out in GP Q1s on five occasions, while he made Q3 seven times for a team that still has inconsistent form in F1’s pseudo-science of qualifying tyre prep.

Both team and driver are pleased with the deep connection they’ve formed in the past two years, with Albon’s polite but determined nature – backed up with fierceness when required – a key part. His 27-point haul was ultimately the difference in Williams defeating AlphaTauri for seventh in the constructors’ championship.

The highlights were his stern defence on the way to a point in Bahrain, doing similar but on a very tough one-stopper against much faster cars in Canada, undercutting rivals in Hungary, great tyre preservation at Zandvoort, and defying Lando Norris at Monza. The lowlights came from binning it solo in Australia, and damaging his nose with a needless look inside two cars in the early Baku exchanges. Inconsistent starts and track-limits penalties need addressing in 2024. AK

4. Lewis Hamilton

Down 1

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Hamilton's drive in Mexico was impeccable, converting sixth on the grid into second place

A second winless season looked to have got to Hamilton by the end of the year, but there were very clear highlights over 2023 as he exerted control over George Russell in their intra-team battle at Mercedes. His efforts to reach the podium in both Spain and Canada suggested that the squad had turned over a new leaf with its high-profile aerodynamic changes, although track-limits violations in Austria interrupted a purple patch that later went on to include a Silverstone podium and pole in Hungary.

His drive in Mexico was impeccable too, converting sixth on the grid into a brilliant second place with an astute performance. He’d also offered Verstappen a genuine challenge at the US Grand Prix and finished just 2.2 seconds behind the winner at the chequered flag, before his second-place finish was chalked off for excessive skid-block wear.

That’s not to say that there weren’t mistakes. His gung-ho approach into the first corner in Qatar resulted in a first-lap retirement after clashing with Russell, and an unnecessary swipe on Oscar Piastri at Monza yielded a time penalty. His year petered out after failing to perform at Interlagos, a circuit that he loves, and frustrations with his W14 machinery seemed to cloud his Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi races.

Although recency bias might suggest that Hamilton had a disappointing year, and it would be considered such by his own standards, there were moments of sheer class from the seven-time champion, but also moments of uncharacteristic ruggedness. JBL

3. Fernando Alonso

Up 3

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Alonso's top moment must be his race to an eighth and final 2023 podium in Brazil

A brilliant new start to life at Aston Martin, all with regular splashes of his greatest team radio and media message hits. Alonso can surely even be said to have saved the season from being even more boring.

Alonso was Red Bull’s biggest threat through the first phase of the campaign and before in-season development knocked Aston back. He took a podium in Bahrain after recovering from contact with team-mate Lance Stroll on the opening lap, during which Alonso had to use his considerable nous to make passes in places where the AMR23’s year-long drag deficit to its rivals could be overcome. He also had to contend with early unfamiliarity with Aston’s power-steering system, meaning he was dealing with regular snaps of oversteer, but this got better with a change the team made for May's Miami GP.

There were negative moments – his Q1 gravel trip at Barcelona, solo Spa sprint crash, Singapore pitlane gaffe and late off, plus lining up too far left for the Saudi start back before the FIA widened grid boxes from Australia onwards. But ultimately these were well and truly eclipsed by Alonso’s many high points.

In Canada, he battled past and beat Lewis Hamilton despite a late fuel system worry, in the changing Zandvoort conditions he showed his brilliant adaptability, and he should have won in Monaco, where he qualified second but was undone by Aston’s late-race strategy mistake.

His top moment must be his race to an eighth and final 2023 podium in Brazil, defying Sergio Perez for lap after lap with his differing, traction-gaining lines through the final turns, then nailing the Red Bull back on the last lap. Thrilling, relentless. Usual Alonso adjectives. AK

2. Lando Norris

Up 3

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

A supreme grasp of tyre management helped Norris capture the runner-up spot in Japan

Even before McLaren had started to install its season-changing upgrades, Norris made the most of a car short on downforce. Sixth at Albert Park had opened McLaren’s account for the season, and breaking into Q3 for the first time in 2023 in Baku foreshadowed the performance gains made with its new upgrade approach. Once the next package of new aero parts was tacked on in Austria in July, Norris was dynamite.

Boosted by the upgraded MCL60, Norris was immediately able to fight with the Ferraris and Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring to claim fourth. He then challenged for pole at Silverstone, and sensationally took the lead at the start of the race from Max Verstappen and held it for four laps en route to the team’s first podium of the year with a second. He repeated that position next time out in Hungary, where he was within a tenth of Lewis Hamilton’s pole time.

The trio of races either side of the summer break had been less auspicious, with McLaren struggling on the high-speed layouts of Spa and Monza, while a front row at Zandvoort went begging in mixed conditions. But Singapore and Japan worked to McLaren’s favour; Norris was helped to second by Carlos Sainz’s tactical wizardry in the former, and a supreme grasp of tyre management helped Norris capture the runner-up spot in Japan after being outqualified by Oscar Piastri. He was equally impressive in Brazil after capturing the sprint pole, despite having less confidence in his car over a single lap. JBL

1. Max Verstappen

No change

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

2023 was Verstappen’s most complete F1 world title yet

So many elements created Verstappen’s most complete F1 world title yet. Plenty was down to his utter lack of opposition, but there was little he could do about that. What he could control, he did so commandingly.

Take his recovery drives from the Q2 driveshaft issue in Jeddah, his and Charles Leclerc’s mistakes in Miami qualifying, or the gearbox-change penalty at Spa. Red Bull reckons he used his accrued championship experience to take it easy early in those events, and rely on his car’s race pace potential and slippery nature to get him out of trouble. Less is more and all that.

But Verstappen also showed more is more in his devastating performance – tyre management and all – to beat polesitter and brief title rival Sergio Perez in Miami. Or deliver against the odds with a majestic Monaco Q3 final sector when his team-mate had crashed in Q1. And in how he insisted on taking the fastest lap bonus point from Perez with a needless third pitstop in Austria.

Off-track he was notably more vocal in 2023, with his intense dislike of sprint races and the Las Vegas razzmatazz, but that counts for nothing in these rankings, although it’s interesting that he undermined speculation on improved emotional maturity in some quarters with his “dickhead” comment to George Russell and fury leading up to it after their Baku sprint clash…

After that event – his own pick for his lowlight weekend of the year, where luck went against him in the timing of the GP safety car – he admitted to not liking street tracks. That exposed a rare weakness in his overall game, and he had close shaves with walls on several occasions in his late Baku GP pursuit and the Monaco rain. That, though, is an exceedingly relative point.

But perhaps there’s something about sprints overall considering what happened in Baku, Verstappen needing to recover from behind Oscar Piastri at Spa after not making the call to pit first in the wet, and his Qatar defeat to the Australian. In the penultimate sprint, he showed that his typical ruthlessness isn’t really buried with his chop on Charles Leclerc at Austin, before he was rightly penalised for his Vegas start tactics against the Ferrari driver.

Forgotten highlights were his Jeddah performance while sick with a debilitating stomach bug, how good his tyre management and late race pace was around Red Bull’s struggles in Singapore, and that he could cope much better than Perez with the RB19’s tricky tyre warm-up requirements.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner puts the massive, critical difference between the pair in qualifying (Verstappen scored 12 poles and Perez had his two handed to him) down to Verstappen having “the ability, confidence and skill to extract that moment of grip out of a tyre”.

There were odd track-limits issues, such as in Spain, and inconsistent starts, but Verstappen laid the blame for those at Red Bull’s systems. But his adaptability was seriously impressive – doing whatever his team required on car balance to prioritise race tyre degradation and adjusting his brake bias, differential and engine braking steering wheel ‘tools’, all while chasing Perez in Baku, to boost his subsequent early weekend work with a substitute performance engineer was all excellent.

He said he appreciated “a bit of fire” from Gianpiero Lambiase on the radio, which enhanced a year when his dominance strangled F1. And the sheer class of so many drives – Suzuka just about the top highlight – cannot be denied. AK

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Verstappen won 19 of the 23 races in the process of claiming his third world title on the trot