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# The other F1 returnee who enjoyed his 2023 comeback
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-returnee-enjoyed-his-2023-comeback/
- Published: 2023-12-23T13:50:32.000Z
- Updated: 2023-12-25T11:41:31.000Z
- Description: As The Race reflects on the 2023 motorsport season, we’ve asked our writers to recount their standout motorsport memory or feeling from the past 12 months. Much like a couple of drivers in the 2023 F1 field, Ben Anderson had spent some time away from the paddock before he returned earlier this year
- Author: Ben Anderson
- Tags: Formula 1, #image-bottom-right

*As The Race reflects on the 2023 motorsport season - one that featured a record-equalling Formula 1 schedule, no fewer than 39 MotoGP races, and no shortage of on- and off-track drama in IndyCar and Formula E - we’ve asked our writers to recount their standout motorsport memory or feeling from the past 12 months.*

*Much like a couple of drivers in the 2023 F1 field, Ben Anderson had spent some time away from the paddock - so it's not hard to see why getting stuck back in was our Group F1 Editor’s pick (even if there was a hiccup along the way).*

Representing The Race at the Qatar Grand Prix was easily my standout moment of 2023.

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### Our standout 2023 moments

- [Jack Benyon: A poignant IndyCar trip to Nashville](https://www.the-race.com/indycar/poignant-nashville-indycar-trip-offered-a-big-lesson/)

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I hadn't attended a grand prix since Japan 2019, when a typhoon threatened to wipe us off the face of the Earth, and hadn't visited the F1 paddock since pre-season testing in 2020 - just before Covid changed everything for a good long while.

Things didn't get off to a brilliant start. When I arrived at the FIA's accreditation centre to collect my pass, it turned out they'd printed one for Gary Anderson rather than me!

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2023/12/XPB_1242309_HiRes.jpg)

But once we finally straightened things out and I gained access to the F1 paddock for the first time in four years, I thoroughly enjoyed being back in the thick of covering F1 on the ground: catching up with familiar faces, meeting some new ones - and also dealing with what turned out to be an unexpectedly dramatic weekend amid Max Verstappen putting the world championship beyond any shadow of a doubt.

It felt like a homecoming of sorts, and great to be back after far too long away*.*