2023

The 2023 championship ran to 22 rounds, from the Bahrain Grand Prix on 5 March to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 26 November 2023. The Las Vegas Grand Prix was held for the first time, and the Qatar Grand Prix returned to the calendar. Max Verstappen won 19 of the 22 races, scored 575 points, led the Drivers’ Championship after every round and became world champion for the third year in a row. Red Bull were beaten only once: Carlos Sainz won the Singapore Grand Prix on 17 September for Ferrari, and the other 21 races were won by Verstappen and Sergio Pérez.

Pérez won two of the first four races — in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan — and finished runner-up with 285 points: for the first time Red Bull drivers finished first and second in the Drivers’ Championship. In the Constructors’ Championship the team scored 860 points, while Mercedes and Ferrari, second and third, had 409 and 406.

Nineteen wins in a season is a World Championship record; the previous one, 15 wins, Verstappen had set a year earlier. From the Miami Grand Prix on 7 May to the Italian Grand Prix on 3 September 2023 he won 10 races in a row — the longest winning streak in the championship’s history; the previous best, nine in a row, belonged to Sebastian Vettel in 2013. With 21 wins Red Bull also broke the team record — Mercedes’ 19 wins in 2016.

Verstappen finished all 22 races and missed the podium only once — fifth in Singapore. He won the Miami Grand Prix from ninth on the grid and the Belgian and United States Grands Prix from sixth, and in Saudi Arabia he climbed from 15th on the grid to second at the flag. After Singapore he won all seven remaining races.

After four rounds Verstappen led Pérez by just six points, but after the Japanese Grand Prix on 24 September 2023 the gap was 177. Red Bull also wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship early in Japan. Verstappen secured the drivers’ title in the Saturday sprint in Qatar on 7 October 2023: he finished second behind Oscar Piastri, Pérez retired, and with six Grands Prix left his lead could no longer be overhauled. The next day Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix itself as well.

Fernando Alonso, who had moved to Aston Martin, stood on the podium six times in the first eight races and eight times over the season, finishing fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. McLaren went without a podium in the first nine races, but from the British Grand Prix on 9 July 2023 Lando Norris finished second six times; the team were fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with 302 points, ahead of Aston Martin on 280.

Second place in the Constructors’ Championship was settled at the last round: Mercedes beat Ferrari by three points, despite not winning a single race all season. Lewis Hamilton was third in the Drivers’ Championship with 234 points, winless for the second year running. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri won the sprint in Qatar and finished second in Sunday’s race there too. Sprints were held at six rounds, and Red Bull drivers won five of them.

Oscar Piastri made his debut with McLaren and Logan Sargeant with Williams; Sargeant scored his only point of the season at the United States Grand Prix, finishing tenth. Nyck de Vries started the season at AlphaTauri but after ten races gave way to Daniel Ricciardo, who returned to the championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 23 July 2023. From the Dutch Grand Prix Liam Lawson stood in for Ricciardo for five rounds in a row: he made his debut at Zandvoort on 27 August and scored his first points at the Singapore Grand Prix, finishing ninth. Ricciardo was back on the grid from the United States Grand Prix, and his best result after his return was seventh in Mexico City. For Nyck de Vries, the British Grand Prix on 9 July 2023 remains his last World Championship race so far.