Max Verstappen has been the most dominant driver in the F1 grid since last year. He is now the third most successful driver in terms of most career race wins, behind Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. Moreover, Max helped Red Bull cross their race win tally of over 100. Prior to the 2023 season, Lewis Hamilton had a better GP win record than the whole Red Bull F1 team. Anyway, Red Bull’s RB19 car helped the team break several records this year.
They could also win all the races if they had not lost to Ferrari in the Singaporean Grand Prix. As a result, Carlos Sainz Jr. was the only other race winner in 2023, except for Max and Checo. Lately, the F1 drivers cast their votes for the best driver in 2023. The result was not very surprising.
As Expected, Fellow F1 Drivers Chose Max Verstappen As The Best Of 2023
Max Verstappen got the votes from his peers as expected. However, the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, saw himself drop down to 10th place. F1 generally carries out this voting process annually. In 2023, who else, if not Max Verstappen, would be the numero uno driver on the grid? He had the most dominant season with the most wins, laps led, points, and point gap to second place. However, it is not the first time Max procured these votes. Since 2021, Max Verstappen has been the top vote for his peers. He just made a hat trick this year. As per the F1 standards point system, 19 of the 22 drivers voted for Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso got second and third places, respectively. On the other hand, Lando Norris managed to secure fourth place. In the 2023 F1 standings, the McLaren driver actually finished sixth. Hence, it was an improvement in this peer voting. The two Ferrari drivers, Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri, got places between five to eight in the ballot. Pierre Gasly of Alpine finished ninth ahead of Checo. Moreover, the 2023 drivers who didn’t vote were Lewis Hamilton, Liam Lawson, and Nyck De Vries.
The Red Bull Star Has Been Unstoppable Since Maiden Championship In 2021
Albeit he won his maiden title in 2021, the most dominant racer back then was still Lewis Hamilton. That’s why it was pretty shocking for the fans to see the Mercedes star lose the title narrowly a couple of years ago. It is still a very painful memory for many Hamilton fans out there. For the last couple of seasons, the Hamilton fans had faced only disappointments as the seven-time champion remained winless. On the other hand, Max Verstappen went on to win 15 Grands Prix last year.
It was a record back then. But last year’s record for most wins in a season didn’t stay intact coming to this year. Moreover, the Red Bull star went on to win an unbelievable run of 19 races. No other driver came close to the speed and dominance of the Dutch driver. He broke several records in 2023, including the record for most consecutive wins that previously belonged to the old Red Bull champion Sebastian Vettel. Moreover, Verstappen went past Ayrton Senna’s total GP wins tally.
