Top 50 ranking heads our bumper Christmas special
We’re not going to pretend it was difficult to decide on our number one slot in this year’s Top 50 drivers. But behind that there was the usual mix of debate, frustration and moving people around until the final deadline meant the conversations had to stop.
As ever, this year’s Top 50, which starts on page 17, aims to cover a wide variety of championships, from single-seater, sportscar and tin-top racing, as well as the pinnacle of world rallying. We’re sure you’ll disagree with something on the list, but be sure to take a look at p15 to see how we got to the final ranking.
There’s plenty more in this Christmas double issue, including a review of many major series (p68) and MotoGP (p62), the best pictures of the year (p46) and the return of our Christmas quiz, which this year has some special prizes (p78). We also complete our Le Mans 100 celebration with a look at some of the stranger machines that have contested the 24 Hours over the years (p80).
Our bumper, 22-page National section has all the usual latest news, plus Marcus Pye’s highlights of the year and our picks for the top 10 club drivers and top 10 club-racing rivalries of 2023. We hope this 140-page issue gives you something to enjoy over a glass or three of your chosen tipple during the festive period. We’ll be back on 4 January, before the Dakar Rally, Autosport show, Monte Carlo Rally and Daytona 24 Hours kick off the 2024 motorsport season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Kevin Turner Chief Editor
kevin.turner@autosport.com
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PIT & PADDOCK
4 Button gets WEC deal in Jota Porsche 6 Another new name for Sauber 8 New team joins BTCC as Hard exits 11 Opinion: Jake Boxall-Legge 13 Guest column: Louis Foster 15 Opinion: Kevin Turner
REVIEW 017 Autosport’s Top 50 drivers of 2023 46 Pictures of the year 60 Fastest laps in the UK in 2023 62 How Ducati dominated MotoGP 68 World of sport review: ELMS; Super Formula; Formula Regional European; Super GT; Indy NXT; F1 Academy; NASCAR Cup; TCR World Tour; DTM; World Rallycross; Porsche Supercup; GT World Challenge Europe; Supercars
FEATURES 78 Win in our Christmas quiz! 80 Weird and wonderful of Le Mans 86 Farewell to an F2 warhorse 92 Autosport Williams Engineer Award 98 Scalextric: not just a Christmas present 102 Index: who wrote what in 2023
CLUB AUTOSPORT 113 Rebrand, Euro contest for 7 Race Series 114 Westbourne’s three-car Clio Cup team 116 Fennymore to race FF1600 with sons 117 Debate: what we want to see in 2024 118 Marcus Pye’s moments of the season 122 Top 10 club drivers of 2023 124 Top 10 club rivalries of 2023 126 National pictures of the year
FINISHING STRAIGHT 134 What’s on this week 136 From the archive: 1992 Canadian GP 138 My favourite car: Juha Kankkunen
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21-28 DECEMBER 2023 AUTOSPORT.COM 3
