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Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in the F1 racing. And that's the reason why the British driver has been voted 2019 Driver of the Year by nine of the ten F1 team bosses, beating Max Verstappen and eight other F1 drivers in the latest poll conducted by the sport's official website.
According to F1 official website, the ten team bosses who took part in the latest poll were Christian Horner (Team Principal Red Bull Racing), Claire Williams (Team Principal Williams F1 team), Cyril Abiteboul (Renault F1 team), Andreas Seidl (Team Principal McLaren team), Otmar Szafnauer (Team Principal Racing Point team), Fred Vasseur (Team Principal Sauber Motorsports), Toto Wolf (CEO and Team Principal Mercedes-AMG Petronas), Franz Tost (Team Principal Scuderia Torro Rosso), and Guenther Steiner (Team Principal Haas F1 team).
The Mercedes driver has racked up 11 wins out of 21 F1 races this 2019 season and has signed off this campaign with an outstanding victory at the Abu Dhabi GP. All in all, the British driver has six World Championship titles, 84 race victories, and 151 podium finishes.
Following Hamilton in the F1 power list is the 22-year-old Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen, who scored 146 points, just 13 points behind the current poll leader Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen, who is part of the Red Bull Racing team, is currently the youngest F1 driver to compete in the sport and win a race, when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at the age of 18.
Other F1 drivers voted in the latest poll
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was in third place with 124 points. The Monegasque F1 driver had two brilliant wins, first in 2019 Belgian Grand Prix and then in 2019 Italian Grand Prix, where he won the race from pole position after defending his position from the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
The Monte Carlo-born driver made more impressive performances than his four-time F1 World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel, who settled for fifth place, behind Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon was voted the sixth-best F1 driver on the poll. The Thai-British driver has scored 57 points, just one point behind the fifth-placed Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was voted the seventh best driver on the power list, following an impressive first season with McLaren. Completing the power list of the best F1 drivers were Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was voted eighth and Williams’ George Russell settled for ninth place with 41 points. The British-Belgian Lando Norris, who currently competes with the McLaren team, was voted tenth.
