VOTE: Who was the unsung hero in 2023?

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F1 AWARDS - VOTE: Who was the unsung hero in 2023?

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Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Saturday 30 December 2023 16:57 Updated: 11:46

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In Formula 1 we quickly recognise the glory on race day when the trophies are handed out, but not all the big winners are those on the podium.

There are of course huge impacts and achievements made across the season that barely get noticed or are even quickly forgotten, while there are those that put in the hard yards and bear the brunt of verbal tirades.

We're currently in the process of our annual awards season as voted for by you, the GPFans, and here is our next award category we're getting you to vote on in our list of unsung heroes.

Assessing the candidates...

After Daniel Ricciardo was injured mid-season following his return, huge pressure was placed on a young Liam Lawson, who was thrown in at the deep end to replace the Australian at AlphaTauri. Five overall impressive outings followed, including a point scoring finish, and while he couldn't retain his seat there is much promise ahead for the New Zealand racer.

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For the full-time F1 stars, Alex Albon enjoyed arguably his best season in F1 for Williams, spearheading the team's recovery under new boss James Vowles with a series of impressive qualifying and race performances that underlined his growing maturity in the sport.

Lance Stroll meanwhile struggled in general compared to two-time world champion Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin, but his efforts in recovering from missing pre-season testing with fractured wrists and a broken toe to somehow grab sixth place in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix underlined his resilience.

Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took the plaudits for McLaren's mid-season surge to the front of the grid, but even McLaren chief Zak Brown admits that team principal Andrea Stella was the brains behind the operation as the team hit arguably their best performance levels in well over decade.

Other notable shouts go to Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for providing bundles of entertainment with his spiky interactions with the triple world champion this term over the team radio, while there is also praise for the Las Vegas GP emergency track workers who reacted quickly to fix all the drain covers at the street circuit after the farcical scenes that saw one of the covers come loose and damage Carlos Sainz's Ferrari.