Red Bull left trailing as F1 rivals dominate 2023 team vote

red bull, aston martin, mclaren, williams — Photo: © LAT Images

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Red Bull left trailing as F1 rivals dominate 2023 team vote

Red Bull may have taken the ultimate prize in 2023 but they didn't win everything

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 2 January 2024 08:27

There was no stopping Red Bull as they destroyed their rivals en route to retaining the constructors' championship during the 2023 F1 season.

Yet despite displaying a huge upgrade on performance compared to their 2022 triumph, they were trounced by rivals when it came to the GPFans' awards on the most improved team from last season.

Red Bull were snubbed down in fourth place with just two per cent of the vote, which is decided by readers of GPFans in an online poll vote.

McLaren (right) improved as the season wore on to become chief challengers to Red Bull (left)

Oscar Piastri (left) and Lando Norris (right) regularly took the challenge to Max Verstappen

Fernando Alonso's eight podiums helped Aston Martin overachieve in 2023

McLaren revival steals the show

Instead grabbing a huge winning margin with 67 per cent of votes, it was McLaren who gained the most favour by readers and it's not hard to see why.

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The rapid rate of development from the team during the season saw them go from being one of the slowest cars at the season opener in Bahrain to eventually being arguably the chief challengers to Red Bull. Lando Norris was recognised as the best non-champion driver by readers.

There was though recognition for Aston Martin with 20 per cent of the vote, who despite dropping off the pace as the campaign evolved still bagged an unexpected eight podiums through two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

Williams were also recognised in third following their steady progress under new team principal James Vowles, moving from the back of the grid up into seventh spot and earning nine per cent of votes.

Despite scoring poorly Red Bull avoided finishing last of the nominees, with AlphaTauri's late season surge earning just one per cent of the vote.

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton McLaren Lando Norris Oscar Piastri