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That's it, 2023 is done and in the books. The last race of the season delivered a predictable winner in Max Verstappen, but when it comes to who tops this week's final F1i driver ratings it's a rather different matter, with a strong race for Charles Leclerc, a podium for George Russell that was crucial for Mercedes, and a valiant drive by Yuki Tsunoda who claimed a little slice of Japanese-related history.
Kevin Magnussen (P20): 4.5/10
A sad end to the 2023 season for Kevin Magnussen, who predictably missed the first cut in qualifying and then dropped two places at the start of the race before being the first driver to pit on lap 5 despite starting on a perfectly fresh set of mediums. Quite what the plan was, we're not sure, but the Dane duly spent much of the rest of the race firmly at the back. Magnussen himself said the team had failed to match the developments of the other teams around them: too often, Haas seem ready to write off a season at the earliest opportunity promising a better tomorrow which never arrives. Having tried a newbie line-up in 2021 and going for experience in 2023, nothing is working. Perhaps Guenther Steiner has to look at other reasons for the team's continued failure to thrive.
Valtteri Bottas (P19): 5.5/10
Alfa Romeo is another team that seemed to have its eyes on simply getting to the end of the season and moving on as quickly as possible. In this case, the exit of the Italian marque from F1 (the team will revert to its Sauber brand for 2024-25 before Audi takes over) is surely a big reason for the team stalling. Valtteri Bottas has tried his best but his last points were scored in Qatar: this week he showed decent pace with fourth in both of Friday's practice session but then the speed evaporated on Saturday and he missed the first cut in qualifying. "I don't know what we missed," he admitted. He had a solid first stint in the race which saw him peak in P7, and enjoyed a scrap with Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo as the evening wore on, but a one-stop strategy was asking too much and he sank to P16 even before his pit stop.
