F1 2023’s underachievers: Who were the biggest disappointments?
Sergio Perez
Compared to Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez’s 2023 campaign was shocking. What started with the promise of a title battle after sharing two victories apiece with Verstappen over the first four races quickly turned into misery as Perez’s season fell apart.
Things went majorly downhill for Perez after a psychologically-damaging defeat to Verstappen in Miami, despite starting from pole with his teammate down in ninth. Although he held a valid contract for 2024, pressure soon ramped up on the Mexican after he failed to reach Q3 a remarkable five times in a row in the field’s dominant car.
Perez went on to suffer his lowest point of the season during a disastrous weekend in Qatar but recovered just in time to hold onto second place in the championship ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Considering the competitiveness of the RB19, Perez’s returns were not good enough. He managed just two wins and two poles in a car Vertsappen drove to 19 victories and 12 poles on his way to more than doubling Perez's points haul.
Lance Stroll
A herculean effort saw Lance Stroll drive through the pain to finish sixth at the season-opener in Bahrain, just over two weeks after he broke his wrist and a toe in a cycling accident that left him in hospital and uncertain whether he’d be fit for the first few races.
A season’s best fourth place followed two races later in Melbourne but Stroll lost his way and failed to extract the same performance from his AMR23 as teammate Fernando Alonso.
The Canadian failed to rack up a single podium in a car worthy of podium finishes - underlined by Alonso’s eight trips to the rostrum across 2023 - while he could only take 10th in the drivers’ standings with 74 points as Alonso scored 206 on his way to claiming an impressive fourth.
Alongside Aston Martin’s performance drop-off, Stroll’s consistency was a large reason behind the team slumping to fifth in the constructors’. Following his angry meltdown in Qatar, Stroll did at least end the season strongly, though it was an underwhelming campaign when compared against the bar set by Alonso.
Logan Sargeant
Like Perez, another driver whose performances left his future uncertain for most of the year was Logan Sargeant. In fact, his place at Williams for 2024 was only confirmed in the days after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The F2 race-winner’s baptism to F1 proved to be an immediate challenge as he endured a difficult rookie season that was largely overshadowed by several errors that led to big - and extremely costly - crashes.
Sargeant was also conclusively outperformed by his impressive teammate Alex Albon, whose stunning displays to out-drive Williams’ 2023 challenger effectively took the team to seventh place in the constructors’ championship single-handedly.
However, the American rookie did manage to claim the only point of his F1 career at the United States Grand Prix after Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, and his late-season progress was deemed enough to warrant being kept on for a sophomore year.
Haas
It is difficult to truly judge Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg’s performances fairly over 2023 given the machinery they had at their disposal was so frustratingly terrible - at least on Sundays.
The season was a big disappointment for Haas, who finished last in the constructors’ championship for the second time in three seasons. Haas’ only real development of the season proved to be a failure in the eyes of Hulkenberg, resulting in him and Magnussen splitting the old and new-spec cars, with minimal rewards.
The only real positive about the VF23 was how quick it was over a single lap, resulting in some phenomenal flashes of speed from Hulkenberg and Magnussen in qualifying, but tyre wear issues often led to the pair rapidly descending in the races.
Nyck De Vries
After a spectacular points-scoring cameo with Williams as a last-minute stand-in for Albon led to a full-time opportunity with AlphaTauri, Nyck De Vries’ F1 stint proved to be short-lived and not very memorable.
The 28-year-old Dutchman was ruthlessly dropped by team owners Red Bull and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo just 10 races into his first full F1 campaign following an unconvincing and difficult start.
De Vries, a Formula E champion, was largely outperformed by teammate Yuki Tsunoda and made a series of mistakes that ultimately cost him his seat.
