The sensational drives you missed: 2023’s under-the-radar racing stars

After finishing 11th three times in a row (dating back to Abu Dhabi 2022), the Toyko native scored a point in Australia – then did it again two weeks later in Azerbaijan.

He would have finished ninth in Spain but for an arguably harsh penalty for forcing Zhou Guanyu off track, then chalked another 11th in Miami before scoring another point at Spa later in the season after battling as high as sixth early on.

Meanwhile his now former colleague Nyck de Vries failed to muster a single point before being fired ahead of the Hungarian GP, and Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t finished in the points yet after two races as team-mates.

Tsunoda was impressive in 2022 also, finishing 17th to highly-rated former team-mate Pierre Gasly. Is this his coming-of-age year?

 

Johann Zarco

In a championship dominated by youngsters, 33-year-old Johann Zarco is now the old man of motorcycle racing.

The Frenchman has had serious pace ever since his MotoGP debut in 2017 (he is a double Moto2 champion of course), but has always been the nearly-man of motorbikes, with a glut of podiums to his name but no GP wins.

Could this change in 2023?

In an eventful MotoGP season which has seen numerous crashes due to the fast and furious sprint races and close racing in the grands prix, Zarco has kept on filing the decent finishes, scoring a second in Argentina and three consecutive rostrum appearances between France, Italy and Germany.

A ninth and a fourth have dropped him from fourth to fifth in the championship, but Zarco is still one 2023’s quiet standouts. He finally grab that first MotoGP race win this year.

 

Scott Dixon – IndyCar

It may seem strange to select one of IndyCar’s all-time greats as someone who has been under the radar this season, but the team-mate to runaway championship leader Alex Palou has quietly sidled into second place in the championship after another high-quality year.

Last weekend’s Firestone-whispering drive to first after being spun on lap one at Indianapolis by Roman Grosjean meant Scott Dixon had to play the long game on strategy – and how it worked.

Graham Rahal, driving for his father Bobby’s team, had dominated the weekend, and made his final pitstop late expecting to be able to hunt Dixon down.

However, with the wily old Kiwi at the wheel, it didn’t quite work like that. Dixon played the undercut to perfection, and though Rahal homed in as the laps ticked down, he couldn’t quite reach the Ganassi driver, who won by 0.4sec.

It will likely go down as the archetypal late-career Dixon victory, playing the percentages to perfection, but the performance has summed up his season.

Apart from being punted off by Pato O’Ward at Long Beach, Dixon has finished in the top 10 at every race this season, usually towards the sharper end.

Now second in the championship, albeit a long way off Palou, the Kiwi would likely be closer if it wasn’t for his general lack of one-lap pace that typically leaves him disadvantaged in terms of grid position, while his team-mate is often fighting for pole.

 

No5 Cadillac: Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook and Earl Bamber – WEC

It’s no exaggeration to say that the Toyotas and Ferraris have been in their own Hypercar subclass, such has their dominance been this season, but the car which is heading up the best-of-the-rest standings is arguably the standout performer of the year.

The Cadillac LMDh machine of Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook and Earl Bamber has been a picture of consistency this season, and after four races this season, they were the only squad in the Hypercar field to finish in the top five at every race this year.

Just how difficult it is to maintain this performance in a debut year for the car has been demonstrated by the team’s IMSA sister machine on its few WEC cameos.

Renger van der Zander crashed spectacularly at Eau Rouge in the Spa Six Hours, while the car caught fire in qualifying at Le Mans, something which also occurred while leading the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The standout drive from the No5 did in fact come at La Sarthe when, in the midst of the titanic battle between the Scuderia and Toyota, the blue Cadillac secured an historic podium at the race’s 100th anniversary.

 

Elfyn Evans

Ever the quiet man of rallying, Elfyn Evans has gone largely undetected this year, but he’s now within a win of championship leading team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.

While part-time team-mate Sébastien Ogier stole the headlines in Monte Carlo and Mexico, the Welshman steadily built up his performance, culminating in a win at Croatia.

Though he disappointingly crashed out immediately in the following Portuguese round, since then Evans hasn’t finished outside the top four.

His good work was properly rewarded in Finland when team-mate Rovanperä rolled at the WRC’s fastest rally, leaving Evans to keep the rest at arm’s length and take an assured win – he is now 25 points off his young colleague.

Rovanperä and Ogier have hogged the limelight so far this year, but could Evans snatch that first world title he so craves?

 

Michael McDowell

2023 has been Michael McDowell’s breakout year in NASCAR, though it’s been a long time in the making for the 38-year-old – 16 years to be exact: an IndyCar convert who started his NASCAR career in earnest in 2008 and been slowly chipping away since.

Always running for back-marker squads, the Arizona-native’s career-best finish was fourth until 2021, when McDowell won the biggest race of them all: the Daytona 500.

More impressive performances followed, including a pair of top-threes at Talladega, but in 2023 the Front Row Motorsports driver has really come alive.

For the last ten races McDowell has been the picture of consistency, racking up a number of top-ten finishes, bringing him closer and closer to the playoffs conversation.

It’s ironic that a driver viewed as a road-course specialist had his only win on an oval until recently, but all changed last weekend.

is 2023 upturn in performance culminated in a brilliant win at Indianapolis as he fended off Chase Elliot, the two-time series champion desperate for a win to get him into the playoffs, but unable to get by McDowell.

Could the latter be 2023’s shock NASCAR cup champion?

 

Victor Martins

Victor Martins has only won one F2 race so far this season, but is ranked highest out of all its rookies and still has an outside shot of the title.

The Frenchman took a third place on his F2 debut in Bahrain, and followed it up with a second in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, a string of five bad results left the ART driver adrift somewhat, but from there Martins has fought back.

A pair of podiums in Spain started the real fightback, a runner-up finish in Austria helping his cause too.

However, it was at Silverstone that Martins truly came of age. After starting on pole for the feature race on a damp track, the Frenchman was beaten off the line by Ayumu Iwasa.

However, the ART driver immediately fought back, diving back round the outside at the second turn.

From there he never fell lower than third through the pitstop cycle, ultimately claiming a consummate victory by over 7sec from Zane Maloney.

Now Martins is 68 points off championship leader Frederik Vesti, with 117 up for grabs across the remaining three weekends – could he do it?