What more can I say than what has already been said? Nineteen victories in twenty-two races is quite simply an achievement. Max Verstappen broke the record for the number of consecutive victories (10), his own record for the number of victories in a season, and that of the number of laps led in a campaign (1000)… Among other things, because there are to others. With his 54th triumph, he also overtook Sebastian Vettel to take third place among the most victorious drivers in history, behind Lewis Hamilton (103) and Michael Schumacher (91). To attribute Verstappen’s entire body of work to his superior car would be dishonest. Let’s give Caesar what’s Caesar’s due: the Dutchman is in a class of his own.
McLaren has arguably been the most entertaining team to follow this season, especially since August. Take Lando Norris: in the first eight races of the season, he had finished 17th four times. In Great Britain, he achieved his first podium of the season, a 2nd place. He repeated this performance five times in the remainder of the season and never again finished lower than 8th place. His teammate, young rookie Oscar Piastri, achieved his first podium in Qatar in October. McLaren, whose season can be summarized in an impressive upward curve, managed to catch up, then overtake Aston Martin for 4th place in the constructors’ standings.
In 2021 and 2022, Aston Martin finished the season 7th among manufacturers with, respectively, 77 and 55 points. So she concludes the season in 5th place with… 280 points. For that, she can thank Fernando Alonso and his eight podiums. The Emerald team can be pleased to have offered a contract to the Spaniard, who will return in 2024. At 42, Alonso had a remarkable campaign, which ended with a 4th place in the drivers’ championship, his best result in the last 10 years. “If you had told me before this weekend that I would finish 4th among the drivers, I wouldn’t have believed you, so it’s a real gift,” he said after the last Grand Prix, in Abou Dhabi. […] I think I got everything I could out of the car all season. »
Lewis Hamilton must be getting bored of squirting champagne from the top of the podium. Last year was the first time in his career that the Briton went a season without winning a Grand Prix. This streak continues this year. The seven-time world champion finished 3rd among the drivers, behind the two Red Bulls, but he was nevertheless not satisfied with the car he had in his hands. In an interview with Sky Sports, he indicated that he did not take much away from this season. “The fact that I survived the season, that’s pretty good [what I get out of it],” he summed up. The job of improving the car for next season, he added, now falls to the Mercedes team. “She knows what she has to do,” he said.
Lance Stroll’s 2023 season was… complicated. The Aston Martin driver started well by finishing 6th in Bahrain, after recovering at the last minute from an operation and multiple fractures to one hand. Two races later, in Australia, he achieved his best result since 2020: a 4th place. Since then, things have gone downhill for the Quebecer, who simply couldn’t keep up with the pace of his teammate, the experienced Fernando Alonso. Eliminated in Q1 in Qatar, Stroll was filmed pushing his trainer into the garage. He had to apologize to the FIA for his actions. The son of billionaire Lawrence Stroll had an up-and-down season, sprinkled with some questionable actions, but found a way to finish on a high note with 5th place in Brazil and Las Vegas… Stroll will be back next season , always with Alonso as a teammate.
Ferrari still has work ahead of it to make its car stand up to Red Bull. The fact remains that Carlos Sainz Jr. is the only non-Red Bull driver to have won a Grand Prix this season. The other representative of the Scuderia, Charles Leclerc, has achieved three podiums in the last four derbies. Although the Italian team was unable to beat Mercedes for second place in the constructors’ standings, it has some positives to celebrate this season. Obviously, however, it will be a big task to compete with Red Bull. “We knew it was going to be a difficult season because we lacked the pace we wanted, but the team did an incredible job until the last race,” Leclerc noted after the race in Abu Dhabi.
