Winners

Leclerc looked the real deal when fighting for an F1 title for the first time. He notably crashed while leading in France, but his year was hurt to a greater extent by Ferrari errors. Nine poles and his Australia dominance showed his speed, while passing Verstappen three times to win in Austria reflected his brilliance in wheel-to-wheel battle.

The Australian combined caution and consistency to the speed he’s always had to scoop his second IndyCar title. The Penske star only scored one victory but added eight other podiums across the 17 races to outscore team-mate Josef Newgarden and Chip Ganassi’s six-time champ Scott Dixon.

Such was Vandoorne's consistency across the 2022 season that he only needed one win to secure the Formula E title. He scored points in every race except Mexico; his Monaco victory the fulcrum to a controlled run to the championship. Risk and reward were perfectly balanced by the Belgian.

The star of the F1 season maximised the Red Bull RB18 and has often been unstoppable no matter where he starts. Minor offs and Hungary spin aside, Verstappen has been brilliant and looks like a better driver with that first world title behind him – the Dutchman’s second came swiftly before he took the F1 wins record for a single season.

The new BMW M4 GT3 overcame stiff multi-marque competition to deliver the brand's first DTM title since 2016 with Sheldon van der Linde. Routinely topping speed traps, the M4 proved a formidable tool in race trim and was quick in qualifying, too. It also won in ADAC GT Masters, British GT and the IMSA SportsCar Championship's GTD class.

Ferrari’s finest F1 car for several years came out of the blocks quickly in 2022 and looked like a potential championship winner. But team errors and unreliability hampered the ground-effects machine before Red Bull upped its game and drew away at the head of the field. Four wins is still Ferrari’s best since 2018.

Taking the mantra of ‘quitting while ahead’ to heart, Mercedes once more proved the manufacturer to beat in Formula E before exiting. The Silver Arrow 02 won half of the races in 2022, rewarding the works Mercedes squad with another constructors' triumph over 'customer' team Venturi.

There were reliability problems at first and it was initially overweight but the RB18 has come to be the car at the start of F1’s second ground-effects era. With better tyre degradation and smarter calls from the pitwall than rival Ferrari, Red Bull swept to a title double, with 14 wins so far for Verstappen and two for Sergio Perez.

Loeb made history on multiple fronts this year, demonstrating his experience and adaptability across rally disciplines. Runner-up at the Dakar Rally, the Frenchman switched from sand to gravel and ice and won the first round of the WRC’s Rally1 era at Monte Carlo. Loeb also finished second in the Rally-Raid series and is fighting for the Extreme E title.

Another year of near-misses, perhaps predominately due to Hyundai’s reliability issues, as a couple of early season podiums in Sweden and Croatia didn’t build momentum against the Rovanpera and Toyota charge. A win in Greece puts him in contention against team-mate Tanak for the runner-up spot in the WRC standings.

The new WRC king? Dominated his way to a maiden WRC title, which looked assured halfway through the year when he notched up his fifth win in the first seven rounds. Small blips in Belgium and Greece delayed his coronation, which came with victory in New Zealand, making him the youngest world champion.

Rovanpera’s nearest challenger thanks to wins in Sardinia, Finland and Belgium, but minimal points from the opening two rounds meant Tanak’s title fight never looked on. Frustrations with Hyundai have shown but he still remains on course to finish best of the rest and record his most successful season since his title-winning 2019 campaign.

Perhaps the surprise package as the fastest out of the blocks with Loeb’s Monte Carlo victory, but that’s as good as it got. There have been just three further podiums – one of which was Craig Breen’s third place at the Monte – and M-Sport has slipped away in performance as the season has progressed.

The manufacturer furthest behind on Rally1 preparations, hit by the loss of team principal Andrea Adamo, the i20 was the last of the WRC cars to claim a victory this year. Impressive development saw it comfortably overhaul the M-Sport Ford to mark a solid year but lacked consistency due to reliability gremlins.

Against tougher competition at the Dakar Rally from Mini, a developed BRX and a new Audi attack, the Toyota remained the class of the field with Nasser Al-Attiyah guiding it to victory and Yazeed Al-Rajhi taking third. Qatari driver Al-Attiyah also captured the World Rally-Raid title.

The class of the WRC field at the start of the Rally1 era, taking Toyota to a clean sweep of world titles, with Rovanpera romping to six wins and Ogier adding another triumph with the final round still to come. A 1-2-3-4 in Kenya demonstrated its superiority against the rest.

Blomqvist makes this list thanks to a brilliant first season in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura, which netted victories in the Daytona 24 Hours and Petit Le Mans classics, plus the IMSA title alongside fellow Brit Oliver Jarvis. Blomqvist was also a winner in the all-electric ETCR tin-top series.

It’s arguably Hamilton’s toughest F1 season since 2009 and fifth is as low as he has ever finished in the standings but he has still shown his class. The seven-time champ has been a key factor in sorting the troublesome Mercedes W13 and, when the car has been right, Hamilton has usually led the charge.

McLaren didn’t make the progress it hoped for under F1’s new regulations, but Norris has remained one of the team’s strengths. Norris has once again blown away race-winning team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and his best-of-the-rest performances outside the big three teams has kept McLaren in the fight with Alpine.

In his first season at Mercedes, Russell has measured up well against a team-mate as tough and brilliant as Hamilton. He’s perhaps had more luck than Lewis, but fine consistency has got him ahead in the points and he took a superb first F1 pole in Hungary.

Grasped the chance presented to him by Toyota that had previously gone begging with both hands. Hirakawa didn’t quite make the grade when he was groomed by the Japanese manufacturer for an LMP1 seat back in 2017-18, but he showed in 2022 that he’s now got what it takes to compete at the highest level in sportscar racing.

Although the Rahal Letterman Lanigan squad struggled with its three-car assault on IndyCar, Lundgaard got up to speed quickly in the US. The Dane claimed his first podium with second place on the Indianapolis road course, and beat Indy Lights graduate David Malukas to the Rookie of the Year title.

Finances – or lack of them – meant a tricky 2021, but the American has got his career properly back on track with an excellent rookie F2 season at Carlin. Two wins (both in feature races) have also got him to the brink of an F1 break with Williams. Who needs to raid the IndyCar ranks?

Zhou arrived in F1 to unfair criticism for supposedly being a pay driver only. But a point on his debut in Bahrain silenced many doubters before he was back in the top 10 at Montreal and Monza. He’s avoided the rookie hallmarks of clumsy crashes to deservedly keep his Alfa Romeo seat for 2023.

There was only ever going to be one champion in British Formula 4 this year. The Irishman was dominant from the opening round and racked up 11 victories with Hitech across the season, the next best achieving just four. Snetterton was a particular highpoint, winning by a gargantuan 10 seconds in race three, while Dunne was also second in Italian F4 with US Racing.

Under new management from Mark Blundell, this BTCC cult hero finally got the break he deserved with a move to West Surrey Racing. Absolutely made the most of getting his hands on the BMW. Claimed third in points with three wins, and was rarely far from where the action was.

In his second season with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai, he finally blew away his nearly-man tag and captured a fully deserved maiden BTCC title. Also won the most races – six. Clever, intelligent competitor who is a magnificent racer to boot, and is popular with the crowds.

Had spent most of his BTCC career in rear-wheel-drive machinery and, on his move to the Motorbase Performance Ford line-up, came agonisingly close to adding a fourth title and becoming the first to win it with RWD and FWD cars. Bagged three victories and proved an epic racer again.

Baldwin is perhaps best known for winning the second World's Fastest Gamer competition in 2019, before winning races in British GT in 2020. However, his exploits this season are what net him a nomination, claiming titles in Alpine Esports, Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports and GT World Challenge Europe Esports. Also won Motorsport Games Esports gold for Team UK.

Following a career in F1 Esports and winning the eRace of Champions in 2018, Bonito is nominated this year primarily for his breadth of ability across multiple different platforms. His performances in the VCO ERL competition and at the Rennsport summit this year show an aptitude for winning.

The laconic Dane is the reigning Autosport Awards victor and is nominated once again following yet another F1 Esports season in title contention, plus back-to-back Formula E Esports crowns. He has now won more F1 Esports races than any other driver and has helped Red Bull Racing become the most successful team to date.

Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual GTE class, the Formula Pro Series and the DTM Esports Championship within the same season, Siggy’s ability to win titles across differing platforms and vehicle types is unwavering. His sim performances this year also won him a real-world GT4 season in 2023.