Ranking The Three Top And Three Worst Performers Of The F1 Season Thus Far
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The Formula One season has reached its annual summer break, which often functions as a point of reflection for many drivers and teams. Some drivers have firmly established themselves as top performers of the year, with heroic drives and stellar finishes. Others, however, have clearly lagged behind their teammates, and could be in danger of losing their seats come the end of the season. Here are the three biggest standouts of the year in my opinion, as well as three drivers who have underperformed up to this point. (*Note: Nyck De Vries will not be included in this list, as he is no longer an active driver on the grid.)
While still in just his first season of F1 racing, it is fair to say that Logan Sargeant has had a disappointing year thus far. The 22 year old American has shown flashes of promise throughout his rookie campaign, most notably his 12th place in his debut race, and 11th at the British Grand Prix. However, he has spent most of the season lagging comfortably behind his teammate Alex Albon, who has collected 11 points for Williams as opposed to Sargeant’s zero. The team knew that Sargeant would need time to develop after promoting him from F2, but I think everyone hoped he would be a bit farther along by now. He sits 19th in the standings at the moment, and will at least need to show more signs of improvement in the second half of the season if he wants to silence any rumors about him getting replaced.
Just ahead of the young American is the experienced Dane of Kevin Magnussen. After an incredible return to the sport in 2022, expectations were high for Magnussen coming into this season. He was expected to go toe-to-toe with his new teammate Nico Hulkenberg, and help bring Haas into the points more consistently. However, it has been Hulkenberg doing most of the points scoring so far, with the German driver bagging nine points to Magnussen’s two. Hulkenberg has also been able to drag his Haas car into Q3 more often than not, while his teammate has struggled to get out of Q1. Clearly, Magnussen is not as comfortable with the car as his teammate, and the staggering qualifying gap reflects this. After doing a phenomenal job last year, Kevin Magnussen has been a let down through the first 12 races of 2023, and has a long way to go if he wants to match Nico Hulkenberg’s pace by the end of the season.
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In my mind, the worst performer of the year so far has got to be Lance Stroll. After doing a serviceable job against Sebastian Vettel in 2021 and 2022, a few people had high hopes for him this season, especially considering Aston Martin’s rapid car improvement. However, Stroll has spent the entire year getting exposed by new teammate Fernando Alonso. The 42 year old is currently third in the drivers championship, sitting on 149 points. Stroll, however, is down in ninth, with just a measly 47 points to his name. That’s a difference of over 100 points to Alonso, who has also managed six podiums thus far, while Stroll’s best performance is a fourth at Australia. Granted, Stroll did suffer a wrist injury in a cycling accident in February that definitely hindered his performances in the first few races. But he has been miles off Alonso all season, and is showing no signs of closing that gap whatsoever. Stroll’s dad owns the Aston Martin F1 team, so it is unlikely that he will remove his son from the seat anytime soon, if ever. But if anyone else was this far off the pace of their teammate, they likely would have already been relieved of their driving duties.
Now, on to the top performers, and you can’t talk about the great drives of 2023 without mentioning Lewis Hamilton. After an unusually quiet year for the seven-time champion last season, he has fired back with his usual tenacity, poise, and brilliance. Hamilton has comfortably had the measure of George Russell this year, outscoring him 148-99 through the first twelve races. He also has four podiums to Russell’s one, and is usually the quicker Mercedes driver of the course of a race weekend. His magnificent pole lap in Hungary was one for the ages, and it showed that the Brit could absolutely still be challenging for world titles if he had a car that was on par with the RB19. Currently sitting fourth place in the drivers standings, it’s hard to say Hamilton could realistically be driving much better than he is right now.
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The same can be said about his former teammate and old adversary, Fernando Alonso. In just his first year with Aston Martin, the Spaniard has enjoyed his best season in Formula One in a decade. He started the year off with three consecutive podiums, and five in the first six races. While Monaco left a sour taste in the mouths of Fernando Alonso fans due to a missed opportunity to jump Max Verstappen in a pit sequence and win the race, it marked the high point of the season for the 42 year old veteran. Aston Martin as a team has taken a clear step back since then, but Alonso has put it on himself to bag as many points week in and week out as possible. Thanks to him, the team is still in the fight for second in the constructors championship, even with Lance Stroll drowning in the midfield. Alonso has gotten the absolute most out of his green machine all season long, and if Aston are able to recover some pace and get close to Red Bull, then a 33rd career win could be on the cards for the two time world champion.
However, the designation of top performer cannot feasibly go to anyone but Max Verstappen. When you win 10 of the first 12 races, and are more than 100 points clear of your teammate for the lead of the world drivers championship, you deserve all the praise in the world. Verstappen has barely put a foot wrong all season, and has become an inevitability in the world of Formula One. The Dutchman is currently riding a ridiculous eight race winning streak, and it looks likely that he will break Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive victories in a few weeks time at Monza. Verstappen is on pace to shatter the record for most wins in a season, as well as any other number of benchmarks you can think of. Lights-to-flag victories have become the norm for the defending world champion, and he has driven almost flawlessly through the first half of the season. What Max Verstappen is doing right now is truly legendary, and while it may be frustrating to watch him disappear off into the distance every race, we should appreciate the greatness that we are lucky enough to bear witness to.
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Who are your top and worst performers of the year so far? Is there anyone I missed who deserved to be on this list?
