Perez and Alpine among the big losers from the 2023 F1 season

Where we have winners, we also do losers. After yesterday's Winnersof the 2023 season, RacingNews365 has come up with a selection ofthe biggest losers from the campaign that was. It should be pointedout however, that it is not saying the choices are rubbish and thatthey have no idea what they're doing. At this level of elite sport,the difference between 100% and 99% is massive and can be thedifference between an all-time great season or a demonstration runof unrivalled dominance. So, we begin with a driver who, on paperat least, achieved everything his team required, but by every othermetric was destroyed. Loser - Sergio Perez Sergio Perez's seasoncrumbled in the aftermath of being passed by Max Verstappen for thewin in Miami on Lap 48. From pole, Perez failed to escape up theroad and was reeled in after a late stop for the Dutchman, and wasan easy kill. His form nose-dived afterwards, with the trudgearound Europe particularly galling. There was speculation that RedBull designed the car to suit only Verstappen's 'on the nose' stylethat likes a loose rear-end compared to the more understeery Perez,but the World Champion just drove the car better than Perez whoappeared lost and broken around the time of Japan and Qatar. A deepdive at the factory unlocked some answers and he just aboutstumbled over the line to finish second but a repeat in 2024 willsurely not be tolerated. Loser - Alpine Now, to lose one member ofsenior management during a season may be regarded as misfortune; tolose two looks like carelessness. But to lose four in a matter ofweeks? Not even Oscar Wilde has a quote for that. Over the summer,Laurent Rossi (CEO), Otmar Szafnauer (Team Principal), Alan Permane(Sporting Director) and Pat Fry (Chief Technical Officer) were alleither sacked or resigned. Fry's criticism before moving toWilliams was stinging claiming the team has no ambition to gobeyond fourth, with 2023 being a massive regressive step. It fellfrom fourth to sixth in the Constructors', with a drop of 53 pointswith just 120 on the board at the end. Alpine finds itself insomething of a no man's land, well ahead of the bottom four teams,but some way behind the top five. Bruno Famin has taken over asinterim boss, but Alpine is a team in a muddle, whose hopes ofclimbing the field were set back by Szafnauer's departure and hisproject being ripped up for another fresh start. Losers - Mercedesand Ferrari Both Mercedes and Ferrari only have themselves to blamefor a rotten 2023 in which they scored one win, and combinedfinished 45 points Red Bull. Mercedes bungled the W14 by stickingwith the zero sidepods while Ferrari's 'bathtub' design also ranout of road as the field converged on the Red Bull designphilosophy. Both have committed to major changes for 2024, but ineffect will be starting their new concepts two years later than RedBull. That's two years and 38 Grands Prix wins of experience RedBull has in its back pocket. Both might be able to chip away at thesizeable gap to Red Bull, but it will surely be no-where nearenough to challenge on a regular basis. Red Bull will be sitting inMilton Keynes having a relatively relaxed winter and RB20 carbuild, safe in the knowledge that unless it has the biggestcapitulation in the history of stable regulations, the championshiptrophies will surely be staying for another year. As for the othertwo, the dominance of Red Bull is their fault - and solutions mustbe found. Quickly.