It’s time to share the nominees for the Champion Driver of the Season, where only the Championship winners are eligible for selection. Earlier we brought you the ‘Rookie Driver of the Season’ nominees, so if you haven’t seen that yet, it’s available now.
Max Verstappen (Formula One)
Max Verstappen is the 2023 FIA Formula One World Champion, his third title in a row. This year’s title win is his best yet taking 19 race victories, and 12 pole positions out of 22 races.
It’s been a record-breaking season for the Red Bull breaking endless records including the highest percentage of wins in a season, most wins in a season, most consecutive wins, most wins from pole postion and most points in a season.
To top it all off, the points that the Dutch driver won for himself were enough to take the Constructor’s title for Red Bull by itself.
Jake Dennis (Formula E)
Who would have thought going into the 2022/23 Formula E season that it would be Jake Dennis from Nuneaton taking the title at his home London e-Prix.
He was up against some tough competition and despite only taking two race victories, his consistency of standing on the podium a further nine times was enough to secure victory over Nick Cassidy.
Only one retirement and a further three races where he didn’t finish on the podium out of 16 is very impressive and it’s for that reason the Red Bull development driver is on this list.
Alex Palou (Indycar)
While the past few seasons for Alex Palou have been overshadowed by contract sagas, he hasn’t let this affect his on-track performance as he secured his second Indycar title in three seasons in 2023.
Racing for Chip Ganassi Racing, he took five race victories and a further five podiums out of the 17 races to win the title by nearly 80 points ahead of Scott Dixon.
Palou would also take pole positon for the 107th running of the Indianpolis 500, setting a new pole record speed, before securing the title with a race to go at the Grand Prix of Portland.
Ash Sutton (BTCC)
Ash Sutton is now a four-time British Touring Car Champion, equaling the record set by Andy Rouse and Colin Turkington.
With a packed thirty race calendar, across 10 different rounds, Sutton took pole position at six rounds in his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST, along with 12 race victories and a further eight podiums with only two retirements across the season.
He ended the year 46 points ahead of defending Champion Tom Ingram as well as claiming the Wingfood ward, which awards points for the drivers qualifying performances.
Daniel Harper (British GT)
The final driver on the ‘Champion Driver of the Season’ award shortlist is someone who you may recognise if you’ve been following our Youtube channel for a while, and I mean from the very beginning.
Northern Ireland’s Daniel Harper won the 2023 British GT Championship alongside his team-mate Darren Leung in the Donnington Decider ahead of James Cottingham and Jonathan Adam.
Victories in the Silverstone 500 and at Brands Hatch along with a podium at Snetterton and Donington Park were enough to take the title for the BMW Works Driver.
The winner will be unveiled first here on theapexmotorsport.com so make sure you check back on the 22nd November to find out the winner. There is plenty of content coming out across both our website and Youtube channel during the month of December as part of ‘Apex Advent’. Make sure you follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and subscribe to us on Youtube so you don’t miss out on any content here on ‘The Apex Motorsport’.