Perez and Alpine among the big losers from the 2023 F1 season

Where we have winners, we also do losers.

After yesterday's Winners of the 2023 season, RacingNews365 has come up with a selection of the biggest losers from the campaign that was.

It should be pointed out however, that it is not saying the choices are rubbish and that they have no idea what they're doing.

At this level of elite sport, the difference between 100% and 99% is massive and can be the difference between an all-time great season or a demonstration run of unrivalled dominance.

So, we begin with a driver who, on paper at least, achieved everything his team required, but by every other metric was destroyed.

Loser - Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez's season crumbled in the aftermath of being passed by Max Verstappen for the win in Miami on Lap 48.

From pole, Perez failed to escape up the road and was reeled in after a late stop for the Dutchman, and was an easy kill.

His form nose-dived afterwards, with the trudge around Europe particularly galling.

There was speculation that Red Bull designed the car to suit only Verstappen's 'on the nose' style that likes a loose rear-end compared to the more understeery Perez, but the World Champion just drove the car better than Perez who appeared lost and broken around the time of Japan and Qatar.

A deep dive at the factory unlocked some answers and he just about stumbled over the line to finish second but a repeat in 2024 will surely not be tolerated.

Loser - Alpine

Now, to lose one member of senior management during a season may be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.

But to lose four in a matter of weeks? Not even Oscar Wilde has a quote for that.

Over the summer, Laurent Rossi (CEO), Otmar Szafnauer (Team Principal), Alan Permane (Sporting Director) and Pat Fry (Chief Technical Officer) were all either sacked or resigned.

Fry's criticism before moving to Williams was stinging claiming the team has no ambition to go beyond fourth, with 2023 being a massive regressive step.

It fell from fourth to sixth in the Constructors', with a drop of 53 points with just 120 on the board at the end.

Alpine finds itself in something of a no man's land, well ahead of the bottom four teams, but some way behind the top five.

Bruno Famin has taken over as interim boss, but Alpine is a team in a muddle, whose hopes of climbing the field were set back by Szafnauer's departure and his project being ripped up for another fresh start.

Losers - Mercedes and Ferrari

Both Mercedes and Ferrari only have themselves to blame for a rotten 2023 in which they scored one win, and combined finished 45 points Red Bull.

Mercedes bungled the W14 by sticking with the zero sidepods while Ferrari's 'bathtub' design also ran out of road as the field converged on the Red Bull design philosophy.

Both have committed to major changes for 2024, but in effect will be starting their new concepts two years later than Red Bull. That's two years and 38 Grands Prix wins of experience Red Bull has in its back pocket.

Both might be able to chip away at the sizeable gap to Red Bull, but it will surely be no-where near enough to challenge on a regular basis.

Red Bull will be sitting in Milton Keynes having a relatively relaxed winter and RB20 car build, safe in the knowledge that unless it has the biggest capitulation in the history of stable regulations, the championship trophies will surely be staying for another year.

As for the other two, the dominance of Red Bull is their fault - and solutions must be found. Quickly.