Verstappen Loses Out On Laureus Award Despite Record-Breaking Season

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen missed out on the Laureus award despite recording the most successful season in F1 history.

What the Red Bull Racing driver achieved in 2023 might never be matched. The triple World Champion won 19 out of 22 races and broke a series of incredible records, some even 70-year-old records.

Verstappen achieved the most wins in a single season (19), the highest percentage of wins in a single season (86.36%), the most consecutive wins (10), the most points (575), the most podiums in a season (21), the most laps in the race lead (1003), and more.

However, even that wasn't enough to win this year's Laureus Award. Laureus Awards are amongst the most prestigious awards in the world of sports.

The 26-year-old has actually already won this award in 2022, but he was definitely one of the favorites for the win, considering his achievements last year were much more impressive.

The Red Bull Racing driver lost out to Novak Djokovic. The tennis player won 3 out of four Grand Slams last year, and the Laureus Awards that he won is the fifth in his collection.

Other nominees included football players Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland, Swedish athlete Mondo Duplantis, and sprint sensation Noah Lyles.

If Verstappen wins the award, he will not be the first in F1 history to do so. The legendary seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher won it in 2002 and 2004.

Other drivers who managed to win at least once include Lewis Hamilton (2020), another seven-time World Champion, and Sebastian Vettel (2014), a four-time World Champion.

This has been the third consecutive time that the Flying Dutchman was nominated for the award, and if he can extend the form that he has been showing in the first five races of this season, he might very well deserve another nomination next year.