Team principals, with a conclusion on their assessment of Alonso and his top 10 in the year 2023

The course 2023 by Max Verstappen will frame, with a total of 19 wins out of a possible 22, an absolute record in F1 history, and being the first world champion capable of doubling second place in points, his teammate. ‘Checo’ Pérez. He even achieved a record 10 consecutive wins (from Miami to Monza). He was unopposed and won his third crown. It’s no wonder that Formula 1 team principals chose him as the best driver of 2023. But if there’s one contender beyond Max for his great performance on the track, it’s Fernando Alonsoand the group leaders acknowledged this in their votes.

F1 published this Friday the result of the vote of the 10 Team Principals of the F1 grid to select the 10 best drivers of the 2023 F1 championship. Each of them presented a private list with their 10 best drivers of the year, ordered from best to worst, and to get the final result the same scoring system was used as in a Formula 1 race. Thus, the first in each list received 25 points, 18 for second and 15 for third, and so on until the point of taking 10th.

In this way, the maximum points a driver can receive is 250 and Max leads that list almost entirely, with a total of 240 points.

Alonso, 2nd best driver of 2023 for team managers

Behind him, in second position, Fernando Alonso was chosen.

The Asturian had a fantastic year. When he got a podium car, he took advantage of it, scoring 5 out of 6 possible podiums at the start of the season without fail in what was at the time the second best car on the grid. In the last of the first six races he came close to winning, challenging Max in one lap for pole and in a race where he came close to winning. Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren surpassed Aston Martin in the development of their cars, but despite this Fernando put his hands out in the delicate conditions to add two more podiums in Canada and the Netherlands without a standard car. And after a final improvement of his car, in Brazil he returned to the podium with a real exhibition, beating Pérez in a ‘photo finish’ finale.

Fernando Alonso thus managed to unexpectedly defend the fourth last position in the World Cup. All this goes unnoticed by the 10 team leaders on the grid. In total votes, Alonso finished second with 128 points. That’s why Fernando improved 6 places compared to the result he achieved in this vote last year, when he was 8th.

Lando Norris finished behind him, in third position, ahead of Charles Leclerc (4th) and Lewis Hamilton (5th). Carlos Sainz was 6th, with Oscar Piastri in 7th place, Alex Albon in 8th and George Russell in 9th. 10th is the world runner-up, ‘Checo’ Pérez. The Mexican lost 5 positions compared to last year due to his clearly lower performance than Max driving the same car.