The first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season is scheduled for March 5, and will kick off the biggest season we’ve ever seen with a record-breaking 23 stops along the 20-country tour and three new F1 drivers making their debut.
You can expect to see the big names like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris returning to the grid in 2023. Sadly, we won’t be seeing Australia’s beloved Daniel Ricciardo this season, but we will see a number of new faces.
In 2023 we have three new drivers, as well as one returning driver whose face we haven’t seen since 2019. So without further ado, let’s get acquainted with the new F1 drivers for 2023.
New F1 drivers for 2023
Logan Sargeant
Team: Williams
Country: USA
Age: 22
Logan Sargeant is the first American to race in the F1 since 2015, as he moves up the ranks in his career after appearances in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 circuits in recent years. He was also crowned Rookie of the Year in the F2 season with Carlin — and now he is ready to move into the F1.
At 22 years old, he will join Williams in the number 2 car alongside Alex Albon after a year of training with the Williams Driver Academy.
“Being a part of the Williams Driver Academy for the past year has given me an important platform to develop as a driver and prepare me for this next chapter,” he said when his position was announced.
“I’m ready and excited to be a part of this journey as the team looks to progress up the grid”.
Nyck De Vries
Team: AlphaTauri
Country: Netherlands
Age: 28
After his impressive results as a reserve driver for Williams last year at Monza, it is no surprise that Nyck De Vries was a hot commodity for 2023. At 28, the Dutchman is finally getting a full-time driver seat in the 2023 season as the oldest of the new Formula 1 drivers making their debut.
Prior to his F1 career, De Vries has won a world karting championship, the Formula 2 championship in 2019, and the Formula E championship in the 2020-21 season, so he is no stranger to a victory lap.
And that’s a good thing because AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost recently told the media that the expectation is for him “to be all the time in qualifying three and to score as many points as possible.”
Oscar Piastri
Team: McLaren
Country: Australia
Age: 21
One Australian out, one Australian in for McLaren in 2023. While we’ve had to say goodbye to Danny Ric at McLaren, fellow Australian Oscar Piastri is getting his F1 debut — so we’ve still got a horse in the race.
Despite being barely old enough to even rent a car in Australia, 21-year-old Piastri was a hot commodity this season.
After working as Alpine’s reserve driver in 2022, he was eventually named as Fernando Alonso’s replacement as full-time driver for the team in 2023. However, he was seemingly left out of the loop with these conversations and called out the team for announcing his role without his consent — nor agreement.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year,” he said on Twitter at the time.
Ultimately, he signed with McLaren — taking over Danny Ric’s seat — in an extremely dramatic F1 storyline.
Despite the fact that most of the drama that unfolded was out of his control, Piastri is seemingly now expected to live up to grand expectations in his debut full-time season.
Nico Hulkenberg
Team: Haas
Country: Germany
Age: 25
Returning to the F1 grid for the first time since 2019 is Nico Hulkenberg, who will replace Mick Shumacher at Haas.
The 35-year-old German known as “Hulk” served as a reserve for Aston Martin last year, but hasn’t had a full-time spot since 2019. He first made his F1 debut with Williams in 2010, before driving for Force India, Sauber and Renault throughout the decade.
At his peak, his best championship finish was seventh, but it is also worth noting that he holds the not-so-great record for most races without a podium finish with 181 races.
For his sake, let’s hope he can break that curse in his new role at Haas.
Will the new Formula 1 drivers be in the next season of Drive to Survive?
Formula One has confirmed that a sixth season of Drive to Survive will be filmed throughout the 2023 season, which means we can likely expect to get to know the competition’s newest faces on Netflix next year.
In the mean time, season 5 (which followed last year’s F1 season) is set to drop on Netflix on February 24, 2023.
The full F1 grid lineup
The three new drivers, as well as the returning Hulkenberg will join a stacked grid comprised of fan favourites like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, among others.
The full grid for the 2023 season, including the new F1 drivers, can be found below.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen – #1
Sergio Perez – #11
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc – #16
Carlos Sainz – #55
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton – #44
George Russell – #63
Alpine
Pierre Gasly – #10
Esteban Ocon – #31
McLaren
Lando Norris – #4
Oscar Piastri – #81
Alfa Romeo
Zhou Guanyu – #24
Valtteri Bottas – #77
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso – #14
Lance Stroll – #18
Haas
Kevin Magnussen – #20
Nico Hulkenberg – #27
AlphaTauri
Yuki Tsunoda – #22
Nyck de Vries – #21
Williams
Logan Sargeant – #2
Alex Albon – #23
