The Ultimate Guide to F1 Drivers: How Many Are There and Who Are They?

Formula 1 is the most prestigious and exciting motorsport in the world, where the best drivers and teams compete for glory and fame. But how many drivers are there in a typical F1 season? And who are they?

20 Drivers in 2023

There are 20 fulltime drivers in the 2023 F1 season, which runs from March to November. This is the same number as in 2022, but with some changes in the line-up and the teams.

The season kicked off with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 5, and finishes up at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 26. In between, there will be races across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America.

Highlights Of The 2023 F1 Driver Grid

Some of the highlights of the 2023 season include:

• The return of Nico Hulkenberg to F1, who will join Kevin Magnussen at Haas.
• The debut of Oscar Piastri, who will partner Lando Norris at McLaren
• The New American driver, Logan Sargeant, joins Alexander Albon at Williams.
• The debut of Nyck de Vries, who will partner Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri.
• Fernando Alonso moved to Aston Martin, where he will join Lance Stroll.
• Pierre Gasly moved to Alpine, where he will join Esteban Ocon.

In addition several teams employ test drivers who work with the engineers verifying the effect of new devices before they are installed on the car.

List Of F1 Drivers

The twenty drivers who are officially on the 2023 F1 grid are listed below.

2023 F1 Driver Race Numbers – Who Uses What Number And Why?

Each driver gets to choose their own number (as long as it is not used by another driver.) There are strict rules about the numbers that are available.

The Number 17

One of the rules is that the number 17 cannot be used. Jules Bianchi was using this number at the time of his 2014 accident at Suzuka. He later succumbed to injuries from that crash.

The Number 13

Only one driver in the history of F1 has ever used the number 13. was Mexican racer Moises Solana, whose BRM carried the number in his home race in 1963.

Apart from that drivers have steered clear of it due to the suspicion that 13 represents bad luck.

Other Numbers

There are number such as 69 which have certain overtones and are therefore not chosen by drivers.

The 2023 Driver Numbers

Some of the reasons have a nice backstory while others are simply  chosen because they are required. Some of the mor interesting reasons for various drivers are listed below.

Max Verstappen – Racing Number 1

The previous year’s winner of the F1 drivers’ championship is entitled to use the racing number 1 in the following year. Max Verstappen has chosen to exercise this privilege.

Even though Lewis Hamilton is a 7 times world champion he never exercised this privilege.

Logan Sargeant – Racing Number 2

Sargeant explains why he chose number 2

Lando Norris – Racing Number 4

Although he would have preferred another number (46 being his first choice) the number 4 works with his Twitter handle #L4ndo.

Pierre Gasly – Racing Number 10

When Pierre Gasly raced in Formula Renault he became the European champion. The other reason is that he is a fan of Zinedine Zidane, who was number 10 for the national French team.

Sergio Perez – Racing Number 11

Perez chose the number 11 as a tribute to Ivan Zamorano his childhood soccer idol.

Ivan wore the number on his shirt in his last year of playing for Club America.

Fernando Alonso – Racing Number 14

The number 14 is significant to Fernando Alonso. When he was 14,on the 14th of July, his go kart number was 14, he became world champion.

Charles Leclerc – Racing Number 16

Leclerc originally wanted to use number seven. When he found that was taken he wanted number 10, but it was also taken. Leclerc revealed.

Charles ended up choosing number 16, because one plus six equals seven. His birthday is the 16th of October.

Lance Stroll – Racing Number 18

Stroll carried his number 18 race number through from his early karting says where he has success.

Kevin Magnussen – Racing Number 20

Magnussen carried the number through because it was his winning number from the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series title.

Nyck de Vries – Racing Number 21

The number 21 has no specific importance for Nyck de Vries.

Yuki Tsunoda – Racing Number 22

Originally Yuki Tsunoda wanted number 11 but that was already used by Sergio Perez. Because of this he double 11 to become 22.

Alexander Albon – Racing Number 23

Albon races using the number 23 as a tribute to worn by NBA icons LeBron James and Michael Jordan.

Guanyu Zhou – Racing Number 24

His other passion was basketball and he chose the number 24 in memory of Kobe Bryant who, with his daughter, was killed in a helicopter crash.

Nico Hülkenberg – Racing Number 27

Hülkenberg uses the number 27 because it is the month (August – 8) and (19) day of his birthday added together.

Esteban Ocon – Racing Number 31

Ocon chose the number 31 in F1 because it was the number he won the junior series in.

Lewis Hamilton – Racing Number 44

Arguably the most famous number on the track is 44 used by 7 times world champion Lewis Hamilton.

The number was first used on a home built go-kart he raced. The number was an extract from the number plate on his dad’s car at that time.

Carlos Sainz – Racing Number 55

When Sainz started in f1 he wanted to use the number 5, however it was not available because Sebastian Vettel used it.

He decided to use to 5’2 together 0hence 55.

George Russell – Racing Number 63

63 was the number George Russel brother raced with after he won the go-kart championship. George took this over.

Valtteri Bottas – Racing Number 77

Bottas originally wanted the number 7 as a sign of luck. He then decided to double it up to 77.

Oscar Piastri – Racing Number 81

Piastri recalls the following

Back To Top