Lewis Hamilton refused to cast his vote for the F1 Driver of the Year for 2023.
Max Verstappen was named the F1 Driver of the Year for 2023 by his peers in a poll voted on by every driver on the grid except Lewis Hamilton, who abstained from submitting his ballot. F1 holds an annual vote among its 20 drivers where they pick their top 10 drivers for the year.
Votes are submitted anonymously with scores given based on the current F1 points system. The top driver on each list earns 25 points down to one point for the driver in 10th position.
The scores are then combined and a top 10 is created based on each driver’s list. Drivers can vote for themselves although F1 claims that not everyone chose to do so. 19 drivers cast their vote this year with Hamilton being the only driver to choose not to do so once again.
World champion Verstappen came out on top for the third year running after a dominant campaign that saw him become the first driver to break the coveted 500-point barrier in a single season. Meanwhile, Hamilton, who finished third overall in the F1 drivers’ standings was voted as No 2 by the grid.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso came third, up three places from last year, with McLaren’s Lando Norris placing fourth while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari completed the top five. Despite a P2 position in the Drivers’ Championship Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez just scraped the top 10, coming in at No 10 behind Pierre Gasly, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr.
There was no place for George Russell this year, who came joint third with Hamilton in the 2022 vote. Lance Stroll was the only other driver to have finished inside the top 10 for the Drivers’ Championship who wasn’t included in the top 10 F1 drivers of 2023.
