2023 F1 drivers head‑to‑heads

Meanwhile, intra-team battles at Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren all began to simmer nicely through the 2023 F1 season. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell engaged in direct combat on a handful of occasions, while Charles Leclerc continues to do just enough to keep Carlos Sainz in his rear-view mirror, even though the Spaniard was able to claim the accolade as the only non-Red Bull winner in 2023. Oscar Piastri has anounced himself well and truly at the top of the sport with his improvements over the course of the season. He claimed a Sprint victory, and did enough to ruffle Lando Norris' feathers in the latter half of the year.

Let’s take a look at the completed F1 driver head-to-heads from 2023 to see which drivers came out on top.

Red Bull: Verstappen vs. Perez

The numbers made for pretty brutal reading if you're Sergio Perez. There will always be the argument that the Red Bull car is designed and engineered to Max Verstappen's liking, but there's no doubt the performance of the RB19 was on a different level to the rest of the field in 2023, and yet Perez consistently struggled to make it into Q3 and was for a while in danger of losing out on second in the drivers' championship.

Verstappen's imperious form and relentless winning have made life incredibly difficult for his team-mate, and it's difficult to see where Perez goes from here. We thought he'd made progress at the start of the year when he went toe to toe with Verstappen and won two of the opening four races. But from there, the wheels very quickly fell off his wagon as Verstappen went on a rampage and won 17 of the remaining 18 races.

Mercedes: Hamilton vs. Russell

Another incredibly odd season for Mercedes. 2023 was the first season without a race win for the Silver Arrows since 2011, just eight podiums, fewer points than 2022, and yet with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at the wheel the team still finished second in the constructors' championship. It just goes to show the dominance of Red Bull that there wasn't any success left for anyone else.

That said, Hamilton had the beating of Russell in almost every department in 2023. Aside from equal pegging in qualifying, the seven-time champion was far more consistent on race days, and the fact Hamilton came close to snatching second in the drivers' standings is worthy of acclaim.

Russell will no doubt be searching for more from himself in 2024, although quite where Mercedes will sit next season is a complete mystery as the team continues to struggle with its car.

Ferrari: Leclerc vs. Sainz Jr.

Much like Mercedes, it's difficult to understand Ferrari's season. From a statistical point of view, with a win, nine podiums and seven pole positions, Ferrari was the second most successful team in 2023, and yet the performances were so often far more underwhelming than that. Such was the inconsistency of the car and its drivers, Ferrari ended up third in the constructors' championship.

Charles Leclerc has had a poor season by his standards, although he did finish up the year as the closest challenger to Max Verstappen with two second places in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. It was a run that also saw him overthrow team-mate Sainz as the lead driver in the championship.

Aside from his surprise victory in Singapore, a perfect example of right place at the right time, Sainz has had a bit of a nothing season. His consistency of scoring meant he finished with a solid haul of points, but headline performances were few and far between. He needs to find more pace to have a chance of competing with Leclerc in a head-to-head battle.

McLaren: Norris vs. Piastri

McLaren's comback in 2023 must go down as one of the greatest of all time. This was comfortably the slowest team on the grid in Bahrain, as both drivers languished at the very back of the field, and yet six months later the pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had become regular challengers for podium places.

After a season on the sidelines, Piastri had all the pressure on him to make the most of his F1 opportunity, and there's no doubt he belongs at the top of the sport. That said, he didn't quite have the speed to challenge the superiority of Norris when the car was finally able to provide it.

Piastri did of course take the team's headline result with a win in the Sprint in Qatar, but Norris' consistent pace saw him take more podiums and out-perform his team-mate in qualifying and race trim.

Aston Martin: Alonso vs. Stroll

What a difference six months makes. Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin was the closest challenger to Red Bull's dominance in Bahrain, and he scored six podiums in the first eight races. After that, Aston's season capitulated. The team ended up fifth in the constructors' championship, with Alonso fourth in the drivers' and team-mate Lance Stroll languishing down in tenth.

Quite where Aston would have ended up had Stroll been able to match the performance of his team-mate we'll never know, but it's plain that the Canadian was no match for Alonso in 2023. Fernando, after more than 20 years in F1, is as sharp as ever, and even when it was clear the car was no longer good enough to compete for podiums he still managed to hustle the car into third place in Sao Paulo. The gulf in points between the two Aston drivers is second only to that between Verstapen and Perez. Stroll has work to do in 2024.

Alpine: Ocon vs. Gasly

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With an exciting all-French driver line-up, and a team supposedly aiming to fight for championships within 100 races, Alpine’s two podium finishes, one for each driver, constitutes a horrible underachievement in 2023. That said, Pierre Gasly will be the happier of the two drivers.

The pair were evenly matched throughout the season and, although they came together at the first corner in Hungary, managed to get through without the fireworks many might have expected between two drivers who haven't always seen eye to eye.

Ocon's six retirements, the most of any driver in 2023, hindered his progress, and he ultimately did well to remain within touching distance of his team-mate in the drivers' championship. Both drivers will be hoping for a substantially better car in 2024 if they have aspirations of fighting each other for more valuable results.

Williams: Albon vs. Sargeant

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Alex Albon has absoluteley dominated Logan Sargeant in 2023. A clean sweep of qualifying is one thing, but in every race where both drivers finished, Albon came home first. In every sense, this was a bit of an annihilation.

A tough start to life in F1 for Sargeant then, to the point where we still don't know whether he'll retain his seat for next season. Albon on the other hand has cemented his status in the sport, after suffering the same fate of so many others at Red Bull, he has reuilt his reputation and his career at Williams, a team that he is slowly making his own. Surely he'll find his back into a top seat sooner rather than later?

AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda vs. Nyck De Vries vs. Daniel Ricciardo vs. Liam Lawson

It all got a bit messy for AlphaTauri in 2023. The disappointment that was Nyck de Vries' short stay in F1 was quickly overshadowed by Daniel Ricciardo's own misfortune as he suffered a broken hand in a practice crash. That meant Liam Lawson was brought in to fill the gap for a total of five races.

You could have forgiven Yuki Tsunoda for getting distracted by all the comings and goings in the garage next door, but instead he piut together his strongest season in F1 by far. He's provided some much needed consistency to the team, scoring points far more fequently than he's used to, and that shows in his final tally of 17.

It was far from a smooth return for Ricciardo, who looked revitalised when he returned to his old team, but expectations will be high for him when he gets up and running properly in 2024.

Alfa Romeo: Bottas vs. Zhou

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Alfa Romeo's latest stint in F1 has come to a whimpering end, with the team languishing towards the very back of the grid. Not even star driver Valtteri Bottas could drag the car into the points.

The battle between Bottas ans Zhou Guanyu was far closer this season though, as the Chinese driver got his feet under the F1 table and appeared more comfortable, especially on race days. Bottas still has the edge when it comes to outright speed, but Zhou's trajectory is good, if not spectacular. The team will revert to its Sauber roots in 2024, but it's difficult to see where the performance boost is going to come from before Audi's arrival in 2026.

Haas: Hülkenberg vs. Magnussen

Haas doubled down on experience for the 2023 season when it brought in Nico Hulkenberg to replace Mick Schumacher, and unfortunatley all of the experience in the world means little when the car is inherently slow.

Hulkenberg has done everything he could have to justify his return to F1. He outscored and out-performed team-mate Kevin Magnussen in both qualifying and race trim. A fundamental issue with tyre management meant the Haas was often a quick car on Saturdays, only to fall horribly out of contention on Sunday. Meaning the drivers were ultimately powerless to wrestly anything more from the car. Both drivers remain for next season, they must be praying for a better car in 2024.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.