2023
Alex Albon wins his second championship! Not even Verstappen could stop him this year.
Top 3
1. Albon
2. Verstappen
3. Alonso
Percentage of laps led over teammate,
In-text form including the number of laps,
1. Albon 956 = 96.5%
2. Verstappen 1051 = 86.5%
3. Alonso 952 = 83.5%
4. Norris 830 = 72.9%
5. Hamilton 771 = 64.4%
6. Leclerc 634 = 59.3%
7. Hulkenberg 652 = 59.0%
8. Ocon 608 = 54.7%
9. Bottas 617 = 52.0%
10. Zhou 568 = 47.9%
11. Gasly 502 = 45.2%
12. Magnussen 453 = 40.9%
13. Sainz 434 = 40.6%
14. Russell 425 = 35.5%
15. Piastri 307 = 27.0%
16. Stroll 187 = 16.4%
17. Pérez 164 = 13.4%
18. Sargeant 34 = 3.4%
More info,
Williams: In 2022, Albon delivered a great performance for Williams, leading 83.2% of laps ahead of Latifi. The following year, in 2023, he upped his game further by leading a remarkable 96.5% of laps ahead of Sargeant, marking it as Albon's most outstanding season to date. Although he did have a rookie as a teammate it will be interesting to see if Sargeant can close the gap in 2024.
Red Bull: In 2021, Perez experienced his most challenging season at Red Bull, leading only 8.5% of laps ahead of Verstappen. Although he displayed progress in 2022, leading 24.6% of laps, the improvement wasn't particularly noteworthy. In 2023, there has been a slight regression as he led 13.4% of laps. Verstappen has had a stellar year, ranking it as his third-best with an impressive 86.5%, behind his exceptional performances in 2020 (96.2%) and 2021 (91.4%).
Aston Martin: Alonso dominated the lead, commanding 83.5% of laps ahead, leaving Stroll trailing at 16.4%. This season stands out as Stroll's weakest in his career, surpassing the previous low set in 2019 (35.2%) when he partnered with Perez. 2023 stands as Alonso's fourth-best season, a remarkable achievement given his age of 42.
McLaren: Norris continues to perform greatly, maintaining a lead of 72.9% of the time, representing only a slight 6.3% decline from 2022. Piastri managed 27.0%, but he's navigating the learning curve as a rookie. In a comparative context, during Norris's rookie season in 2019 against Sainz, he led for 36.0%, a figure that slightly dropped to 32.7% in 2020 when facing Sainz again. It wasn't until Norris's third season that he truly hit his stride. The upcoming season in 2024 will be intriguing to see if Piastri can narrow the gap further.
Mercedes: Hamilton's performance in 2022, particularly in the second half as mentioned a year ago, indicated he was ahead of Russell. In 2023, the gap between the two drivers widened further. Hamilton led for 64.4% of the season, showcasing a significant increase of 14.9%. Conversely, Russell's performance dipped to 35.5%, marking his least impressive season to date. To provide context, Bottas's average over five years at Mercedes against Hamilton stood at 28.8%.
Ferrari: Leclerc has consistently been ahead of Sainz, achieving percentages of 67.7% in 2021, 60.0% in 2022, and 59.3% in 2023. The competition this year was closer than it appears. Sainz led ahead of Leclerc for a significant portion of the season, and for the majority of 2023, the two drivers were closely matched. It was only towards the end that Leclerc managed to reclaim the upper hand.
Haas: Hulkenberg and Magnussen experienced a closely contested start, with Magnussen maintaining the lead. However, as Hulkenberg, who had been absent from a full-time F1 seat since 2019, reacquainted himself with the dynamics, he effortlessly surpassed Magnussen in the later stages. This season marked Magnussen's second-weakest performance, with only his rookie season in 2014 (33.5%) proving worse when he competed against Button.
Alpine: Over the two years partnered with Alonso as his teammate, Ocon consistently held an impressive average of 43.1% laps ahead. Therefore, this year's performance, where he led 54.7% of laps ahead of Gasly, wasn't a surprise, although I was expecting Ocon to do a bit better. 2023 marked Gasly's second-weakest performance, with only 2019 being worse when he teamed up with Verstappen.
Alfa Romeo: In Zhou's rookie season, he secured a 20.7% lead against Bottas. However, this year marked a significant improvement for Zhou, as he increased his lead by 27.2%, finishing 2023 ahead of Bottas for 47.9% of the time. While Bottas maintained his status as the stronger driver, the gap between them notably diminished. The upcoming 2024 season promises further improvement from Zhou, it will be interesting to see if Zhou can continue to improve in 2024.
AlphaTauri: Tsunoda continued to demonstrate notable improvement this year. In his debut season in 2019, he led for 19.1% of the time, and this figure significantly rose to 41.6% in 2022. In 2023, with three different teammates, he led overall for an impressive 76.2%, making it his best season to date. However, as he wasn't up against Gasly, his former teammate, it remains difficult to precisely gauge the extent of his improvement in direct comparison.
de Vries led for 15.0% of the time before being replaced by Ricciardo mid-season. However, during Ricciardo's temporary absence due to injury, Lawson stepped in and led for 23.8%. It's important to not read too much into this specific figure, given the temporary nature of Lawson's role during Ricciardo's recovery. During Lawson's debut race under challenging weather conditions, he completed the race but couldn't surpass Tsunoda in terms of laps led. In Italy and Singapore, Tsunoda failed to complete a single lap making any meaningful comparison impossible. However, in Japan, where both drivers were closely positioned on the track and frequently swapped places, it was Lawson who led the most laps. In their last race together, Tsunoda led the most laps, but Lawson held the lead during the early stages of the race. Only three races allowed for a proper comparison between the two, with one of them being when Lawson was called up with little notice and preparation time.
Ricciardo led for 35.5% of the time against Tsunoda, bearing in mind that he was making a comeback from injury. In the past two seasons, his average against Norris was just 26.5%. Given these circumstances, accurately assessing Tsunoda's performance in 2023 proves to be a challenging task.