Vote for your 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

32 comments on “Vote for your 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

1. 

   Zann (@zann)
   5th November 2023, 19:11

   well this is the easiest ever!
   1. 

      roadrunner (@roadrunner)
      6th November 2023, 0:32

      Is it? It’s quite close between Verstappen, Norris and Alonso for me…
      1. 

         MacLeod (@macleod)
         6th November 2023, 8:07

         While Lando had a good race he had a bad Qualify which drop him from DotW.
         I had the same problem Alonso or Max and Lando but went for Alonso….
      2. 

         Zann (@zann)
         6th November 2023, 8:14

         It’s the driving:)
   2. 

      elchinero (@elchinero)
      6th November 2023, 13:44

      and #44
      1. 

         melanos
         6th November 2023, 16:02

         Yes of course. #44 seems to have 0 votes which is totally unfair. Sir has done last weekend the best passive overtakes in the story of Motorsport by not doing even a submicroscopic defense effort. Why bother when you no longer have a 2-3 seconds/lap advantage over the whole field?

         Besides my vote for WDOTW, Sir gets the Borg (“resistance is futile”) Award.
         1. 

            melanos
            6th November 2023, 21:23

            The previous Borg Award was given to Timo Glock for his indomitable defense at Junção in 2008. The kind of defense that forced the Toyota Team to leave Brazil in disguise.
2. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   5th November 2023, 19:14

   ALO for both DOTW & DOTD.
3. 

   SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
   5th November 2023, 19:17

   DOTD: Alonso
   DOTW: Must be Lando
4. 

   Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
   5th November 2023, 19:22

   Have to go with Alonso, despite not being able to do much in the sprint race. That final stint defence and last two laps fight back was spectacular.

   Congrats to Lando Norris for the Lando Norris of the day award.
5. 

   f1statsfan (@)
   5th November 2023, 19:31

   Max driver of the weekend – yes he has a great car but Max is making much more the difference than he is getting credit for.

   Lando and Alonso did great today but didn’t run perfect in sprint shootout and/or race.

   Impossible for any driver to have done better this weekend than Max achieved, getting 33 of 34 points, winning both races and having perfect 3 out of 3 starts.
   1. 

      melanos
      5th November 2023, 21:14

      Too much resultism here. You can win everything and still not be the best driver.

      Fred’s long defense from Checo, who clearly had a lot more pace, and the astonishing counterattack in the last lap was stonking, clearly one of the top three drives of the season.

      Not wanting to take anything from Max who is sensationally consistent. He had a solid drive today, made a gutsy pass in T1 and was mostly cruising for the rest of the race. Max did not do anything remotely as memorable as Fred today, Well, he did not need to, I hasten to add.

      Fred will surely not get a 9 by WW, for that you need a perfect weekend, and his sprint performance was not on the same level. but his race today wholly deserves it. My bet is an 8. I don’t expect Max to go above 7.
      1. 

         melanos
         5th November 2023, 21:56

         Sorry. got it a bit mixed-up, the pass in T1 by Max was in the sprint race, not in the GP race.
         Not that Max did anything wrong. but nothing too special either.

         Trust me on this one: Years ahead, people will still be re-watching this race for the Checo-Fred battle but no one will be watching it for Max’s drive and win. Most everyone here (including people who were not even born when the battle took place) has watched the Dijon 1979 RenéArnoux/Gilles Villeneuve fight for 2P, but I’d bet only a few remember the guy who won the race (JP Jabouille, FWIW).
      2. 

         Ludewig
         6th November 2023, 13:28

         Too much resultism here.

         But you are engaging in ‘enjoyism.’ Just because a battle is enjoyable, doesn’t make it the end all be all of a racing performance.

         It may be boring when a driver manages his tires very well and drives at a great pace for a long stint, but it is a big part of what is needed to win.

         And I rate the pole lap pretty highly, as Max did everything he could to get the best position for a run (but was hampered by the garage location) and then made the best of the hard circumstances in a situation where there was no ability to learn from an earlier run in the same circumstances.
         1. 

            melanos
            6th November 2023, 17:31

            Anyway, just imagine that one of the Haas drivers has a perfect weekend. You would never know just by looking at the results. I am guilty of enjoyism, fair enough, but lots and lots of people are way too resultist and it is mind numbing when the mech/teams differences are so large
   2. 

      Nick T.
      6th November 2023, 4:04

      Vettel was supposedly the GOAT for four seasons until he didn’t have the best car by a mile on the grid. Max is clearly much better than Seb, but I’m always amazed how easily fans are sucked into declaring this or that driver having done the best job when they have the fastest car on the grid week-after-week. He and Daniel were neck and neck when they were teammates and driving the third best (and sometimes second best) car on the grid.
6. 

   Moshambles (@moshambles)
   5th November 2023, 19:34

   I know some pedants will prattle on about how it’s “Driver of the WEEKEND” but it’s falling on blind eye’s this time. Alonso all day (so to speak)
7. 

   David BR (@david-br)
   5th November 2023, 20:03

   Alonso, those final laps were legendary
   1. 

      Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
      6th November 2023, 6:41

      I was going to vote for Max, but Fernando’s efforts were just so amazing I think I would have regretted not voting for him.
8. 

   GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
   5th November 2023, 20:49

   Has Charles Leclerc inherited the Chris Amon unlucky gene?
9. 

   Andrew (@andrewsf1)
   5th November 2023, 20:50

   It was obvious it was going to be a red flag as soon as the crash in turn 1 happened. But someone wanted to help Norris and Hamilton. Stroll and Alonso should have been 2nd and 3rd on the restart. The sense of collusion and fake entertainment left a bad taste. Otherwise decent race and good battle between Alonso and Perez gets 7/10 from me and Alonso for DOTW.
   1. 

      David (@nvherman)
      5th November 2023, 21:00

      Why should Stroll and Alonso have been 2nd and 3rd at the restart?
      1. 

         SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
         5th November 2023, 21:54

         It seems he somehow wants to punish good starts.
         1. 

            David (@nvherman)
            5th November 2023, 23:22

            Indeed, Norris’ reaction and race start were spot on
10. 

    KimiRaikkonen1207 (@kimiraikkonen1207)
    5th November 2023, 23:37

    Max and Lando were both terrific, but it has to be Alonso for his wheel to wheel racing with Perez, Hamilton, and Gasly (in the sprint race). Just outstanding! The most exciting driver to watch in the sport even now.
11. 

    pcxmac (@pcxmac)
    6th November 2023, 1:28

    Alonso and Aston, clearly the winners of this weekend. FGS, they even have a car that can pass a Red Bull. Wow. That said, after hearing the commentators talking about the ‘popping’ sound the Honda motor, I wonder if it functions like the traction control featured on the MotoGP bikes HRC runs ? Are they running a weird firing order motor or does Honda have the best motor out of the corners because it is running some sort of torque dependent traction control mode ? I know MotoGP have standardized ECUs, for which I disagree with, but I have to wonder, given how fast Alpha-Tauri were out of the last corner, its worth looking in to Honda’s firing order on engine breaking and near tire-slip/misfiring.
12. 

    GmP (@gmp)
    6th November 2023, 1:48

    Alonso for driver of the day because the last several laps with Checo are very memorable. There are other drivers who did more on track passing to get to the finishing positions they ended up, but those get less attention. E.g. how Lando went from six to second on the first start was also spectacular.

    For driver of the weekend it is for me between Max and Lando. Max did nothing wrong, maximized every opportunity he had for points. And while it looks easy, that is just because he is flawless.
    Lando scored in both races above where he started, and did that in a solid fashion. No risk where the result would not be worth it (no point fighting Mac in first corner first lap in the sprint), being aggressive where the outcome delivers good progress towards the front (passing everyone but Max in corner one on lap one in the race)
    Alonso didn’t do anything special on Saturday. Qualification result on Friday was just right time right place.

    DOTD : Alonso
    DOTW : Lando
    1. 

       Nick T.
       6th November 2023, 4:08

       Didn’t he start from pole in one of the races? How could he finish above where he started. Agree with most of your assessment, but get-aways are 95% the car and 5% the driver, unless Perez is suddenly also one of the best starters now too.
13. 

    Todfod (@todfod)
    6th November 2023, 9:49

    It was close between Max, Lando and Alonso for the entire weekend.
    Max didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, but then given the car advantage he already had, he didn’t need to drive extraordinarily to win.
    Lando was incredible all weekend.. the only negatives from his weekend were his qualifying for the main race, and how he didn’t put up a strong enough fight in to turn 1 for the sprint race.
    Alonso was strong in qualifying for the main race, had a strong fightback in the sprint race from a wrecked sprint shootout, and was hands down the DOTD in the main race on Sunday.
    I had to give it to Alonso, because keeping a Red Bull behind for more than 20 laps at a circuit like Interlagos required some of the most consistent and tactful defensive driving I’ve ever seen.
    1. 

       melanos
       6th November 2023, 10:35

       I would like to watch a detailed analysis of Fred’s defenbse lap by lap. There was not a consitency that Checo could have exploited, Fred kept getting new tricks almost every lap. (tricks in the good sense, nothing illegal of course)

       Checo was maybe somewhat wary of overtaking by T1 thinking that Fred could get back ahead by T4 so most of the tricks were in the Sennas Ss or immediately afterwards, deploying variable amounts of stored energy, varying the trajectories and so on.

       Anyway I thought everything was lost after the overtake at L70, and that Checo would just fade in the distance. He did not thanks to DRS mostly, and a very minor but crucial mistake that allowed Fred to make T3 right behind him and succesfully overtake by the exterior route. Of course Fred did not force a overtake attempt by turn 1, his trajectory would have been poorer and Checo would have got an easy second overtake by T4 leaving Fred behind without a chance.

       You can rarely watch such a close finish anyway, with Fred crossing the line just a few centimetres ahead of Checo who was fully overtaking him. By the time the rear wheels were over the finish line Checo was already ahead, that says it all.
       1. 

          Nick T.
          6th November 2023, 19:35

          Unless we had detailed engineering knowledge or had experience driving the cars, I frankly don’t believe we could understand exactly how he did it all just with telemetry available to F1 official media. I was surprised to hear Nico had a settings secret he still wouldn’t share publicly even now that he said he would explain to Daniel during an interview they had on Nico’s long format YT show.

          But yeah, that finish was wild.
       2. 

          melanos
          6th November 2023, 21:48

          and a very minor but crucial mistake

          I’ll elaborate a bit on this. Checo went somewhat out of his way to cover the inside of T1 in the last lap. Understandable but I consider this a crucial mistake. Fred might have gone for the gap and overtaken Checo at T1 but then most assuredly Checo would have repassed him by T4 without a chance for Fred to recover. So really Checo had no need to cover the inside at T1. By doing it, his trajectory though the Bully’s Esses was suboptimal and Fred was right behind his gearbox at the Curva do Sol with better traction and DRS for the Reta Oposta. Again, Checo covered the inside after Fred feinted but then Fred completed an astonishing overtake on the outside. It reminded me of the overtake on Schuey at the 130R in Suzuka 2005, which I still consider his very best. Yesterday’s overtake on Checo was superb but tainted by that wicked DRS

Comments are closed.