This has been quite the campaign for Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver winning 11 out of 21 races to clinch a sixth world title. Those antics have, unsurprisingly, earned praise from the big cheeses up and down the grid, with F1’s team principals voting him their number one driver of the year in our poll…

Under the condition that their scores remained anonymous, the team principals submitted their list of the top 10 drivers of the year. Drivers were given scores based on the current F1 points system – 25 points for the top driver down to one point for 10th in each list – with those scores then combined to produce a ranking.

FAN POWER RANKINGS: We reveal your Top 10 drivers of 2019

While Valtteri Bottas was team mate Hamilton’s closest challenger in the drivers’ standings, it was Max Verstappen’s performances for Red Bull which caught the eye of the team principals, as the Dutchman – who won three races and took the first two poles of his career in 2019 – slotted into second.