F1 2023 mid-season awards: Best driver, worst race and biggest surprise

As we head into the summer break, Formula 1 Correspondent Kieran Jackson hands out his halfway prizes after Max Verstappen’s surge to a third-straight world title continued with victory at Sunday’s Belgian GP

It’s a case of 12 down, 10 to go for Formula 1 in 2023.

Max Verstappen is cruising to a third-straight world championship for a Red Bull team who look invincible – and could yet go the whole season invincible.

Yet there have been other notable performances too, with Aston Martin and more recently McLaren impressing, while behemoths like Ferrari and Mercedes are left wondering how they’ve been left so far behind Red Bull yet again.

It’s now time for the usual four-week August break, but not before The Independent takes a look at the highlights and lowlights from the first five months of the 2023 season.

Best driver – Max Verstappen

Unsurprisingly, the easiest choice of the lot. Eight wins in a row, 10 from 12 in total, Verstappen has a mammoth 125-point lead to team-mate Sergio Perez with 10 races left. The title is already virtually sewn up.

The only question left is – how many records he can set this season? Next in line is Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of nine wins in a row, which he can match at his home race in Zandvoort.

Thank you, next.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull celebrate another victory at the Belgian Grand Prix (Getty Images)

Best team – Red Bull

To the second easiest choice of the lot. It seemed highly unlikely that Red Bull could improve on their double success last year; surely the chasing pack would reel them in?

In fact, it’s gone the other way. Red Bull’s rocketship RB19 is Adrian Newey’s greatest design yet. It has won all 15 races including sprints – 12 from Verstappen, three from Perez – and they’ve had five one-two finishes. Including last season, Christian Horner’s team have won 22 of the last 23 grands prix.

George Russell was somewhat ridiculed for suggesting after the first race in Bahrain that Red Bull “could win every race this season.” He doesn’t look so silly now. An unprecedented perfect season could well be the story of the season.

Biggest disappointment – Nyck de Vries

Already out the door after 10 races, with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries’ Formula 1 career is in tatters.

With zero points, a best-finish of 12^th and Red Bull overlord Helmut Marko criticising him as early as April, the writing was on the wall for De Vries from the outset. Did he deserve quite such an early exit? Probably not. But it was coming.

This was not supposed to be the order of play after the Dutchman’s mightily impressive debut at Monza last year for Williams, where he finished ninth filling in for Alex Albon. A return to Formula E appears most likely for the 28-year-old now.

Nyck de Vries’ time with AlphaTauri lasted only 10 races (Getty Images)

Most improved driver/team – Aston Martin

Eyebrows were raised last summer when Fernando Alonso switched from Alpine to the struggling Aston Martin, who finished seventh in the Constructors’ Standings. But how that decision has bore fruit.

Alonso started the 2023 season with five podiums in six races, with the racing green Aston modelled closely on leader of the pack Red Bull, leapfrogging the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari early on.

They’ve had something of a dip recently, but Alonso remains the best of the rest behind Red Bull in the world championship. Their emergence as a frontrunner will be undoubtedly confirmed if they can achieve a race victory in the second-half of the season.

Biggest surprise – McLaren’s recent revival

Aside from the extent of Red Bull’s dominance, the July renaissance from the McLaren papaya has come completely out the blue.

It looked set to be a long season when, in the season-opener in Bahrain, Lando Norris pitted six times amid issues with the MCL60. But, having made personnel changes and altered their floor of the car, Norris secured two second-place finishes in a row in Silverstone and Hungary.

Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has also impressed after a cagey start – the highlight a sterling drive to finish second in the Belgian GP sprint race on Saturday.

Biggest underachiever – Ferrari

This will not be the biggest surprise. After looking so fierce and domineering at the start of 2022, how the Scuderia’s fortunes have reversed in the 18 months since.

Ferrari have not won a race since Charles Leclerc in Austria last year – over 12 months now – and despite changing their team principal in the off-season from Mattia Binotto to Fred Vassuer, they continue to be impacted by the same disorderly confusion which characterised last season.

Charles Leclerc appears close to breaking point on occasions, with Carlos Sainz not far behind. Ferrari themselves will do well not to be left bereft in the midfield in the remainder of 2023.

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari team have not won for over a year (AFP via Getty Images)

Biggest shock – Toto Wolff revealing Mercedes will ditch car concept

Max Verstappen insisting he could quit F1 if more sprint races are added to the calendar was a shock. But just beating it, it didn’t take long for Mercedes to finally ditch their unique no-sidepod design.

Toto Wolff didn’t even wait until the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix; testing, practice and qualifying had told him enough.

“I don’t think this package is going to be competitive eventually,” he said. “We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn’t work out so we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction.”

Improvement for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell has been slow but steady since.

Biggest farce – Esteban Ocon pit-lane incident in Baku

Everyone knew it was happening. The pit wall, the broadcasters – but not the FIA seemingly.

Esteban Ocon had to pit before the last lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having pursued a bold – albeit ineffective in the end – strategy to drive the whole race on one set of tyres.

F1 rules dictate every driver must pit at least once. So the shocking scenes which followed of Ocon almost running over photographers and officials walking in the pit lane was shambolic and extremely unsafe.

Best race – Australian Grand Prix

In a season lacking classic races thus far, the street track of Albert Park in Melbourne did at least provide drama from start to finish.

Three red flags were thrown due to crashes throughout the race, with a late shunt forcing a captivating two-lap shootout to finish, which subsequently resulted in the Alpines crashing into each other and Carlos Sainz penalised for spinning Fernando Alonso.

The sort of chaotic carnage which has not been replicated since.

The Australian Grand Prix had drama from start to finish (Getty Images)

Worst race – Hungarian Grand Prix

Expectations were high in Budapest after Hamilton claimed his first pole position since December 2021. Could he defend from Max Verstappen from lights out? Could there be a battle between the pair not seen since Abu Dhabi 2021? No, no there couldn’t.

Verstappen dived down the inside at turn one and was not seen again. The race descended into nothing short of a bore-fest and had just 16 overtakes – the lowest amount in any grand prix in 2023.

For comparison, last year’s race at the Hungaroring had 61 overtakes.