IndyCar

Having lifted a breakthrough IndyCar title during his first full season back in 2021, how much better could Alex Palou get? A lot, so it turned out, as the 26-year-old Spaniard rampaged his way to a second championship this season aboard his Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing car. Despite the weight of contractual rows with McLaren away from the circuits, Palou showed no effects of that pressure on the track. An early podium in Texas was followed by a first win of the year on the Indy road course. That kick-started the Palou steamroller, and a mid-season hat-trick of wins (Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio) put him in the box seat. Only Scott Dixon could keep pace, but even he was powerless to prevent Palou’s coronation with a round to spare after a fifth victory of the campaign in Portland. Penske’s Josef Newgarden did deny him Indy 500 glory though.

BTCC

The tweet (or X?) was a telling one: “You displayed a combination of tenacity, style & skill, but most of all sheer controlled brilliance that is rarely witnessed. This is just the beginning.” The author was BTCC legend Jason Plato, and addressed to now four-time champion Ash Sutton. It represented something of a passing of the torch. This year’s BTCC season was far from a classic, with the hybrid systems still finding their feet, but that should take nothing away from Sutton’s crushing performance. With 12 wins from the 30 races (including an impressive four consecutive victories across Brands Hatch-Snetterton) he was in a league of his own aboard his NAPA Racing Ford Focus.

World Endurance Championship

On paper it’s the same old story. In reality, it’s so much more. Toyota Gazoo Racing secured yet another 1-2 in the FIA World Endurance Championship points, but that’s not even half the story of a stunning season of change for top-flight endurance racing. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa celebrated two wins and four second places on their way to another title for the Japanese brand, but Toyota missed the big one, with Ferrari’s new 499P taking the biggest laurels of the year when James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi won the Le Mans 24 Hours in emphatic fashion. The Hypercar class is proving a hit too, with 13 cars competing in the top class this year, and a host more to come for 2024. The arrivals of Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini lift the expected total to a superb 19 Hypercar entries.

Formula E

Ladies and gentlemen, a new star is born. Well, two actually, as both Jake Dennis and the new Gen3 cars from Spark Racing Technologies caught the headlines during a big year for Formula E. Like it or loathe it, this season was a cracker, with Dennis, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans playing out a superb three-way title fight amid all of the unknowns that come with a fleet of brand new cars beneath them. Dennis stamped his mark early with an opening weekend win in Mexico, and by mid-year was a regular on the podium in his Porsche-powered Andretti car. He secured the world title on home turf at the London finale when Cassidy retired from race one. “It was a crazy year, mostly because you never actually believed you were going to win a race until you crossed the finish line… we were having that many issues with the cars,” explained Dennis. “Next year things are likely to get even closer as the teams and drivers understand the new tech better.”

Extreme E

Safe to say Extreme E experienced some growing pains in 2023. The third season of the all-electric off-road championship had grand plans to make its debut in the Amazon, crack America and visit Argentina… but none of them happened. Instead a trip to Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Chile and a curious double-header in Sardinia formed the slightly truncated calendar. When racing did get underway we were treated to a three-way Swedish title battle as Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky eventually sealed the title for Nico Rosberg’s Rosberg X Racing concern. Carlos Sainz Sr’s team was second with Mattias Ekström/Laia Sanz, with Kevin Hansen/Molly Taylor third for Veloce. Lewis Hamilton’s X44 squad had to settle for fourth, but drivers Cristina Gutiérrez/ Fraser McConnell did win twice.

WRC

Age is just a number. Regardless, it’s hard to believe that Kalle Rovanperä is still only 23 when he’s already a two-time World Rally champion and masters a Rally1 machine in the manner he does. The Finnish sensation made it back-to-back titles for Toyota with a superbly consistent season, with just a single retirement from the 13 rounds. Of the others, he won three and never finished lower than fourth to wrap up the crown.

Briton Elfyn Evans gave Rovanperä a run for his money though, his three wins helping him to second in the points, securing yet another 1-2 for Toyota in the process. And that bodes well for British rallying ahead of next year, when Rovanperä has made the shock call to only compete part-time. Could it be Evans’ time to go one better than his hat-trick of runner-up spots? We also must pause for a moment to reflect on the tragic loss of Craig Breen, the Irish star who was killed while testing his Hyundai ahead of Rally Croatia.

IMSA

Hypercar didn’t just star in Europe, it also cracked America at the very first opportunity, even if there was a much more home-grown feel about the result during IMSA’s first season with the new category. Having ditched the ageing DPi class after years of service, the new GTP category came in designed to accommodate the same LMH and LMDh cars seen in the WEC, not that we actually saw any LMH cars enter IMSA this term, but give it time… Domestic brands Cadillac and Acura (Honda’s North American arm) had the upper hand over new European arrivals Porsche and BMW in the end. Alexander Sims/Pipo Derani only scored a single win, but their consistency was enough to just see off the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Filipe Albuquerque/Ricky Taylor, and the similar Meyer Shank Racing-run Acura of Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun, which somehow won three times the number of races, yet finished third.

NASCAR

This title was extra sweet for Ryan Blaney, and for more than one reason. The 2023 campaign brought the Penske Ford Mustang driver his first NASCAR Sprint Cup crown, a year on from the season in which he marked himself out as a future champion. In 2022 Blaney was the fastest man during the season finale at Phoenix, but moved aside to allow title-chasing Penske team-mate Joey Logano the win that would secure him the championship. This time the tables were turned, with Blaney streets ahead of Logano, celebrating three wins to Logano’s one. And, while Blaney was second once again in the Phoenix finale, this time it was enough to give him the crown by a single point ahead of Kyle Larson and William Byron, with Blaney leading his rivals over the finish line. Just two points covered the top three in the standings after the mammoth 36-race schedule. Phew.