3 worst F1 drivers of the 2023 season

With the F1 summer break in full flow and the drivers and the teams enjoying a well-deserved timeout, it's always nice to look back at how the season has been.

We've already had 12 races this season, and it's hard to imagine that the number could have been 14 if both China and Imola had gone ahead.

In one of our earlier features, we had a look at the top 10 drivers of the first half of the season.

This time around, we're switching things up and will take a look at the worst three drivers of the 2023 F1 season.

So without further ado let's get straight to it.

#3 Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)

There are two ways to look at how Zhou Guanyu has performed this season.

The first perspective is where you see how he has fared against his teammate Valtteri Bottas. If you look at it from that perspective, the Chinese driver has done a good job. He has been more or less on the same less as his teammate. There is an argument to be made and it is a very strong one that he has probably been a bit better than his teammate.

There is the other perspective as well and that might end up outweighing the first one. Valtteri Bottas has seen his performances fall off a cliff this season and it has been a bit surprising to see. The Finnish driver has started to enjoy his life a bit outside of the track but it seems to be playing a role when it comes to his on-track performances.

He has not looked good on track, he's arguably been a bit underwhelming overall. You take that into consideration and then juxtapose how Zhou Guanyu has performed and you see where it's not looking good.

Even before Zhou reached F1, he was notorious for one major trait and that trait involved him being massively inconsistent. He would have one strong weekend as a testimony of how good he can be but it will be followed by some anonymous performances.

Zhou has been a bit anonymous on the grid and finds himself as the third-worst driver in F1 this season.

#2 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)

Picking up from some of the things we mentioned in the previous point, Valtteri Bottas has had a poor season by his standards.

Make no mistake, Bottas is easily one of the better talents and in F1 and until last season you could even make a case that he deserved a better car.

This season, however, the driver has been completely off the boil. It is coincidental that his drop in form coincides with the Bottas starting to enjoy the finer things in life a little. For any other driver, it would not be this noticeable but Bottas has been one of the more stringent and disciplined workhorses in F1.

The Finnish driver tended to work hard even during his off-seasons to gain an extra tenth or two wherever possible. With him changing his lifestyle a little and, for the lack of a better word, 'having fun', there has been a drop in performance.

A driver of Zhou Guanyu's caliber giving Bottas problems is not a major concern, the issue is the inconsistency and overall lack of performance that puts Bottas at the bottom of this list.

#1 Logan Sargeant (Williams F1)

Logan Sargeant was expected to be an upgrade over Nicholas Latifi. The American made his way into F1 on the back of a very impressive F2 rookie season where he was a multi-race winner. His entry into the sport and his overall performances have, however, not been as good as they should have been.

The driver is struggling with Alex Albon as his teammate and it shows. While him getting outperformed by Albion should not come as a surprise, what should be and has been concerning is the extent of it.

Out of the 10 driver pairing in F1, Logan Sargeant is part of the only one where one driver has a complete sweep in qualifying.

There has been even a single occasion where Logan has beaten Albion in qualifying. When you take something like that into consideration you call such a partnership a complete domination. The driver is fighting for his seat in F1 right now and has been the worst driver this season.