âMost curses broken in a seasonâ
I certainly hope there is more parity in 2024.
I think 50% of the credit should go to Adrian Newey and his design team. Max was given the best tool for the job and made the best use of it. Max is in the small group of exceptional drivers who are consistently able to truly able to get the best out of a car or take it beyond its limits if needed, not that he needed to do this often this year. Checo was given the same tool and showed he is not really up to being in a top team.
Iâm sure RBâs development gains will plateau soon. However the engine regs change in 2026 could be the thing that finally breaks their dominance. It will be their first year running their own self built engine so they could suffer from reliability issues.
The rest of the teams though are really close together already and Haas finished with the most points for a last place team ever. Next season looks like it will be very tight up and down the field.
Guess what helped Max was just how reliable the cars were this season. Canât remember too much retiring because of mechanical faults.
I think I heard he was the only driver to complete every lap of every race.
Yes. Itâs a remarkable statistic.
A good season although very low on real action at the front but nothing new there itâs F1.
My top 10 drivers of the season (I wonder how close the the autocourse top 10 anyone can get).
- Verstappen (difficult choice).
- Norris
- Alonso
- Hamilton
- Leclerc
- Piastri
- Sainz
- Russell
- Albon
- Hulkenberg
Thatâs really difficult. I agree with Verstappen. I 'd put Alonso number 3 ahead of Norris. Iâd also put Hamilton at number 2 ahead of Alonso and Norris. He has taken a comparative dog of a car and make it work. To get so close to being second in the points shows just how good he is. Perez not in your list and though he would be somewhere near the bottom I think he should be in the top ten. Sainz and Russell have for me been the big disappointment. Iâm not even sure they should retain their seats in the top teams.
Curious about why you say that about Russel? He seemed to be doing 'n pretty good job? Ended up equal with Hamilton in qualification result (the only second driver to do that in a team) and often he ended up outscoring him as well.
Look at how many podiums he had vs Hamilton and how many points they both had vs last season. He hasnât performed well at all. I might even suggest Bottas would have out performed him in the Merc this season. His promise has not yet been realised.
George didnât have a good season but luck didnât goes his way either. Hamilton was poor at times and I really donât think the car was that bad, inconsistently good yes, but not that bad and a lot better than half the grid. I think a lot of people might have fallen for Hamiltonâs constant moaning about it.
I did say comparatively. We are talking about the top teams here, not the midfield.
Did not think about it like that. He just never seemed bad to me, but then again he was not getting most of my attention in the races either so I was just talking from gut feel.
The average percentage of the driver of the day vote:
| Driver | Times Dotd | Average percentage of the vote |
|---|---|---|
| Lando Norris | 5 | 11.15 |
| Max Verstappen | 3 | 11.05 |
| Sergio Perez | 3 | 10.90 |
| Fernando Alonso | 2 | 8.44 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 1 | 7.49 |
| Charles Leclerc | 1 | 5.60 |
| Oscar Piastri | 2 | 4.25 |
| Alex Albon | 1 | 3.39 |
| Carlos Sainz | 2 | 3.38 |
| George Russell | 0 | 2.59 |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 1 | 1.95 |
| Pierre Gasly | 0 | 1.22 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 0 | 1.07 |
| Esteban Ocon | 1 | 0.65 |
| Liam Lawson | 0 | 0.48 |
F1 only publishes the top 5, so if not in the top 5, 0% was assumed. (Hence a total of only 74%).
Interesting that Norris ends up highest in both these metrics. Personally I feel he made too many mistakes, especially in qualifying.
I thought it was a good season. Verstappen was the best driver in the best car. As always optimism for 2024 given McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston, could make the step up to challenge rbr. Itâs almost inevitable that with limited rule changes the field will close up even more. Roll on February 2024 first test!
HmmmâŚLewis reckons RBR havenât touched the car since the Summer break. I suspect the RB20 may be a goodunâŚ
I thought Bernie Collins was great this year. Getting her insight on the pit wall strategy calls really added a lot to the viewing experience
