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Dominance for the decades
2023 has undoubtedly been about Red Bull Racing. This season was not about finding out which driver or team was the fastest, it was about finding who could mount a challenge to steal a win from Red Bull. The driver, the car, the pit stops and the strategy, all worked at optimum levels throughout the season. Max Verstappen drove with machine-like precision and we did not see the 26-year-old make any mistakes this season. We have never seen any team perform at such high levels of efficiency. Winning two championships has certainly made Verstappen much more mature. You can read our article about all the records he broke this year including most number of wins, most consecutive wins, most points scored and more.
While Sergio Perez did make a lot of errors, to the point where his future at the team was being questioned, he ultimately did finish second in the Drivers’ Championship. This gave RBR their first 1-2 in the drivers’ standings. On top of this, there was not a single mechanical DNF for the team. You could have the best driver and the best car but a bad pit stop can turn the whole game on its head. Even in this aspect, the mechanics at Red Bull have been on top of their game.
Red Bull got their sixth constructors’ title this year and even managed to set a record for achieving it the quickest in a season. Max Verstappen alone had 575 points at the end of the 22 rounds. Not only was he clear of any other driver in the field, he even managed to score more points than Mercedes who finished second in the Constructors’ Championship. There was only one fateful race in Singapore where Carlos Sainz of Ferrari managed to win a race. All the other races were won by RBR.
A tale of comebacks
Apart from RBR, one of the biggest talking points during the early part of the season was the form displayed by Aston Martin. The team was seventh in the standings last year and was not really setting any timesheets on fire. The Silverstone-based outfit had signed Fernando Alonso to replace Sebastian Vettel. Alonso’s past attempts at joining new teams have not gone spectacularly and the move to Aston initially seemed to be in the same vein. However, the first race of the season in Bahrain saw the Spaniard handily beating the Mercedes and Ferrari duo to finish in P3. Aston had seemingly produced a car that looked like it was on rails. Alonso went on to score a streak of podiums, eight to be precise. This is the highest number of podiums he has achieved in a single season. Both Alonso and Aston Martin looked like they would be the ones taking the fight to Red Bull this year, not Ferrari or Mercedes.
On the contrary, McLaren looked awful at the start of the season. Their car was slow and even a talented driver like Lando Norris was having difficulty scoring points. McLaren too had a new driver in the form of Oscar Piastri. The rookie was at the centre of a lot of controversy before the start of the season which saw McLaren and Alpine fighting each other to keep him on board. Piastri had a lot of pressure to deliver on the hype surrounding him but the start of his season was far from ideal. Former F1 champion Mika Hakkinen had claimed that the team would come back strong after the upgrade package arrived at Silverstone and that is exactly what happened.
McLaren found their footing and was able to take the development of the MCL60 in the right direction. This led to McLaren becoming a force to be reckoned with. Soon, they started sweeping in podiums and points left right and centre. At the same time, Aston Martin seemed to have gone the wrong way and started becoming one of the slowest cars on the field.
Another great comeback was displayed by Williams Racing – a team that is counted among the most successful in the sport but has been reduced to a backmarker in the last few years. James Vowles of Mercedes joined the team as Team Principle at the start of the season and got on the job to make operations more efficient. On the track, Alex Albon displayed great skill to keep his car in the points on many occasions, scoring a total of 28 points. While this might not look like a lot, for a backmarker, even a single point makes a lot of difference. These 28 points enabled the team to climb up to seventh position in the constructors’ battle.
An underrated season for Lewis
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton did not have the best of the seasons last year. Not only was he driving a car that was clearly slow, but he was also outscored by his teammate George Russell who had just joined the team. While this year’s W14 was not miles ahead of the previous car, it was somewhat heading in the right direction. Lewis managed to score his first pole position since 2021 at the Hungarian GP and scored points in all but two races. The British driver has not had a win in two seasons but his consistent performance saw him challenging Sergio Perez for P2 in the Drivers’ Championship. While he could not achieve that, he scored enough points to help Mercedes get P2 in the team standings.
Driver roulette
One of the more peculiar things we saw during the 2023 season was just how many drivers made an appearance in Alpha Tauri. Alpha Tauri is a sister team of Red Bull Racing and is often used as a proving ground to test drivers that could one day be part of RBR. The year started with Yuki Tsunoda being paired with Nyck De Vries. The Dutch rookie had impressed everyone when he stepped in for Alex Albon last year and scored a point in the Williams. Expectations were high but sadly De Vries was not able to deliver. As a result, he was replaced mid-season with Daniel Ricciardo. However, only after two rounds, Ricciardo injured his hand and was out of commission. His seat was then filled by Liam Lawson who impressed everyone with his steady performance in the rather slow AT04. He then went on to score P9 at the Singapore GP and there were questions on whether Alpha Tauri would have him on board as a full-time driver in place of either Ricciardo or Tsunoda. However, Ricciardo returned for the race in Austin, Texas and later scored a much-needed P7. Alpha Tauri then went on to confirm Tsunoda and Ricciardo for the upcoming season.
Fight for the win
The race in Singapore threw off Red Bull like no other track on the calendar and opened up the possibility of someone else winning the race. Standing up to the challenge was Carlos Sainz who had to fight tooth and nail for it. By the end of the race, the Spaniard’s tyres were not in the best of shape and he had Lando Norris chasing him down. But the real threat was a fast-approaching George Russell on fresher tyres and Lewis Hamilton right behind. Sainz knew that he would not be able to hold off the charge by Russell so he cooked up a strategy while driving over 300 kmph in a Formula 1 car on a street circuit. He dropped back just enough to help Lando Norris get DRS and help him fend off against Russell. The battle between the three cars was nail-biting and made for some excellent action.
Viva La Vegas
A much-talked-about race and a new addition to the calendar this year was the Las Vegas GP. It was the third race in America and owing to the popularity of Drive To Survive, the sport would obviously want to capitalise on the new audience. While many fans and drivers were not too thrilled about the street circuit, the race actually turned out to be rather entertaining. Yes, there were some early disasters like a drain cover coming loose and damaging the cars of Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon but the final race did deliver a thriller. Leclerc’s last-lap move on Perez was worthy of a few cheers in itself. At one point it even looked like Leclerc would close the gap to Verstappen and challenge him.
Honourable mentions
Some of the other brilliant moments we saw this year were the performances by rookie drivers Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson. As mentioned before, Lawson was able to keep his car away from the walls on his first race in a torrential downpour at Zandvoort and later went on to score points. Piastri got his first Sprint win in his rookie season and even got the better of Lando Norris a few times. Speaking of Sprints, the new qualifying format that restricts tyre choices and gives less track time was also an exciting addition to the season. In fact, qualifying in general had its share of excitement for the fans.
The most experienced driver on the field, Fernando Alonso showed us that age has not slowed him down. He made a number of brave passes on cars around him and bagged a lot of points. But his presence of mind was on display through many races where not only was he playing mind games with other drivers but also watching the race through the track-side screens and making comments on what he saw.
Monza provided a thrilling battle for the lead as Sainz started the race from pole and fended off Verstappen for a very long time with some aggressive defence. The Spaniard finally got overtaken but the battles were not over. Next, he fought with his own teammate Charles Leclerc for the final podium place. Bizarrely enough, Ferrari let the two fight, however, that made for some nail-biting moments in the race.
Was it fun?
While fans might have found the dominance of Max Verstappen boring, if you truly understand the sport, you cannot deny the brilliance of the three-time world champion. A few years or decades down the line, the 2023 season will be remembered as a masterclass by Verstappen in the same vein as the dominant years of greats like Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Beyond the brilliance of Verstappen, there was a heated battle for P2 in the Drivers’ as well as Constructors’ battles that kept us guessing throughout. Even the teams at the tail end of the championship were putting up fights to pick up any pieces left by the top teams and gaining positions. Yes, it would have been a lot more fun if someone was able to challenge Verstappen for wins and even take away a few but what we got was a thriller in its own regard.