[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix: Belgian Grand Prix 2023

[Born Racer]

Who do you award it to?

[Richard C]

You can easily say Max as he did a fantastic job. But I am giving it to Yuki. He was driving very good today and great results for the AT team.

Richard

[chillibowl]

Max. So confident in that car.

[E.B]

Yuki Tsunoda for me. Was running 6th on pace at one stage and got a non deserving car into a points finish.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Norris, salvaged what was a terrible start to the race, to finish a respectable 7th.

[bathurst77]

i wanted to give it to ocon for some great passes
but any driver that can come from 6th to win by as much or as little as he wants and made zero mistakes has to get the points

[GT6]

max untouchable today but good drive from lando

[Aysedasi]

A real struggle to find someone to pick. Norris did well to salvage some credibility after the euphoria of the last two GPs; Albon looked great - at times; Max just did what Max does. I'll give it to Tsunoda who had a spirited drive putting his team mate in the shade.

Originally Posted by bathurst77

i wanted to give it to ocon for some great passes
but any driver that can come from 6th to win by as much or as little as he wants and made zero mistakes has to get the points

Er, not quite...... But it didn't trouble him much.

[AndreasDavour]

I'm actually wondering how well DR fares, considering he is not exactly blowing young Yuki out of the water, is he?

[Teretonga]

I agree with Richard
Yuki is my driver of the day.
He made the most of what he had.

[Alan52]

I’ve resisted giving it to Max all year because it has all seemed so easy for him.Today I realised his only competition is himself.
Only question now is how long he can keep himself motivated with this level of dominance.

[nobster]

22 seconds on your teammate in 27 laps, only Max!

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

I agree with Richard
Yuki is my driver of the day.
He made the most of what he had.

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

I'm actually wondering how well DR fares, considering he is not exactly blowing young Yuki out of the water, is he?

What are you guys talking about?
Are you sure you were watching the F1 this last 2 weeks?
DR is kicking Yuki down the street!

Lets look at FACTS Results and lap times.

In His 1st weekend out in Hungary he out qualified and finished ahead of yuki. Game Mr Ricciardo

This weekend he was faster than Yuki in Friday qual but lost it for going over the line. (fair enough) sadly there wasnt time for him to go again, (Team tactical error) so his qually time was his early "banker lap." Yuki set his time later when the track was faster.

On saturday he out qualified Yuki by nearly 3 seconds (track conditions were changing, but he got int0 q2, yuki didnt.)
In the sprint he gained a place going from 11th to 10th, (getting a point) yuki went the other way from 16th to 18th..

Come sunday with yuki being higher up the grid so in front at pit stop time, he got the best strategy, Danny was stuck behind Hulk in a suprisingly fast HAAS .

That Haas actually had purple laps for most of the middle laps of the race yet Dan passed him multple times and finished ahead of him. In a total dog of a car. Again gaining places despite being boxed in and having the "worse" pit strategy

Yuki picked up 1 place. (and 2 cars that started in front of him DNF so he should have made 2) He just toured around doing not much of anything.

Danny was faster than yuki

Fastest lap times

15th Daniel Ricciardo 1:50.994
17th Yuki Tsunoda 15:53:54

4th fastest! Nico Hulkenberg 1:49.907

So despite Yuki being in his 3rd year with AT and danny in his 2nd week, and the car being a dump truck, its clear Danny is absolutely schooling Yuki

The only thing Dan has done wrong is going wide on his flying lap in q1 friday which ruined his sunday.

I think My Man Dan can hold his head high.

Explain to me how "he is not exactly blowing young Yuki out of the water?? What does he have to do to impress you, blow Max in RBR into the weeds on a ride on lawn mower?

[bathurst77]

I dunno how that pink drink got there either!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

I dunno how that pink drink got there either!

I think you had several before you posted.....

[AndreasDavour]

Sky doesn't post anything but the fastest lap, so it's hard to compare lap times. But, sure if that's the fact he might be doing better than it looks like.

[steve_r]

Albon. Not for his end result, but for at least livening things up a bit.

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I think you had several before you posted.....

shhhhh....
You're blowing my cred!!
(yeh as if i had any!)

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

What are you guys talking about?
Are you sure you were watching the F1 this last 2 weeks?
DR is kicking Yuki down the street!

Lets look at FACTS Results and lap times.

In His 1st weekend out in Hungary he out qualified and finished ahead of yuki. Game Mr Ricciardo

This weekend he was faster than Yuki in Friday qual but lost it for going over the line. (fair enough) sadly there wasnt time for him to go again, (Team tactical error) so his qually time was his early "banker lap." Yuki set his time later when the track was faster.

On saturday he out qualified Yuki by nearly 3 seconds (track conditions were changing, but he got int0 q2, yuki didnt.)
In the sprint he gained a place going from 11th to 10th, (getting a point) yuki went the other way from 16th to 18th..

Come sunday with yuki being higher up the grid so in front at pit stop time, he got the best strategy, Danny was stuck behind Hulk in a suprisingly fast HAAS .

That Haas actually had purple laps for most of the middle laps of the race yet Dan passed him multple times and finished ahead of him. In a total dog of a car. Again gaining places despite being boxed in and having the "worse" pit strategy

Yuki picked up 1 place. (and 2 cars that started in front of him DNF so he should have made 2) He just toured around doing not much of anything.

Danny was faster than yuki

Fastest lap times

15th Daniel Ricciardo 1:50.994
17th Yuki Tsunoda 15:53:54

4th fastest! Nico Hulkenberg 1:49.907

So despite Yuki being in his 3rd year with AT and danny in his 2nd week, and the car being a dump truck, its clear Danny is absolutely schooling Yuki

The only thing Dan has done wrong is going wide on his flying lap in q1 friday which ruined his sunday.

I think My Man Dan can hold his head high.

Explain to me how "he is not exactly blowing young Yuki out of the water?? What does he have to do to impress you, blow Max in RBR into the weeds on a ride on lawn mower?

haha this is the most Australian post ever

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Skam85

haha this is the most Australian post ever

Yep
Fair dinkum, and no (red) bullsh!tt

[bathurst77]

correction
10th n saturday is nil punkt

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

What are you guys talking about?
Are you sure you were watching the F1 this last 2 weeks?
DR is kicking Yuki down the street!

Lets look at FACTS Results and lap times.

In His 1st weekend out in Hungary he out qualified and finished ahead of yuki. Game Mr Ricciardo

This weekend he was faster than Yuki in Friday qual but lost it for going over the line. (fair enough) sadly there wasnt time for him to go again, (Team tactical error) so his qually time was his early "banker lap." Yuki set his time later when the track was faster.

On saturday he out qualified Yuki by nearly 3 seconds (track conditions were changing, but he got int0 q2, yuki didnt.)
In the sprint he gained a place going from 11th to 10th, (getting a point) yuki went the other way from 16th to 18th..

Come sunday with yuki being higher up the grid so in front at pit stop time, he got the best strategy, Danny was stuck behind Hulk in a suprisingly fast HAAS .

That Haas actually had purple laps for most of the middle laps of the race yet Dan passed him multple times and finished ahead of him. In a total dog of a car. Again gaining places despite being boxed in and having the "worse" pit strategy

Yuki picked up 1 place. (and 2 cars that started in front of him DNF so he should have made 2) He just toured around doing not much of anything.

Danny was faster than yuki

Fastest lap times

15th Daniel Ricciardo 1:50.994
17th Yuki Tsunoda 15:53:54

4th fastest! Nico Hulkenberg 1:49.907

So despite Yuki being in his 3rd year with AT and danny in his 2nd week, and the car being a dump truck, its clear Danny is absolutely schooling Yuki

The only thing Dan has done wrong is going wide on his flying lap in q1 friday which ruined his sunday.

I think My Man Dan can hold his head high.

Explain to me how "he is not exactly blowing young Yuki out of the water?? What does he have to do to impress you, blow Max in RBR into the weeds on a ride on lawn mower?

Or:
In his 1st weekend out in Hungary, he out qualified Yuki by a tiny margin despite his significantly higher level of experience. Then in the race he failed to make up any positions, whilst Yuki moved up the field a few places. Yuki also set a fastest lap of 1:23.269, and DR only managed 1:23.934.

This weekend DR messed up his qualifying lap, and Yuki put in a more composed and tactically sound performance that meant Yuki started ahead on the grid.

Then, come Sunday – Yuki started 11th on medium tyres, he made it up to eighth on the opening lap and climbed another place with a lap three pass on Lance Stroll. Before his pit stop he ran seventh, and dropped back to 11th once he returned to track. His second stint was spent primarily in ninth place, and got as high as sixth before he pitted again.
DR made an early pit stop on lap five after failing to make any on-track overtakes despite starting on soft tyres. AlphaTauri pitted DR again from 12th on lap 22, which allowed him to briefly run free of traffic (in which he set his fastest lap), and he gained two positions in his final stint.


The narrative can be written in many ways......

[BertMk2]

Gave the vote to Max - we all expected him to win but the way he just destroyed Perez was something to behold, he was pulling out about a second a lap after passing him and you got the feeling there was plenty more in the tank if he needed it.

Honourable mentions to Norris, Tsunoda and Albon (who must have had so much fun out there in the Williams even if the end result wasn't brilliant).

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Gave the vote to Max - we all expected him to win but the way he just destroyed Perez was something to behold, he was pulling out about a second a lap after passing him and you got the feeling there was plenty more in the tank if he needed it.

Honourable mentions to Norris, Tsunoda and Albon (who must have had so much fun out there in the Williams even if the end result wasn't brilliant).

Agree about Max. It wasn't just a win. It was the manner of it. And the radio messages.