It’s been a record-breaking season for Max Verstappen and Red Bull so far this year. The team has won all 12 races, with the Dutchman scoring an incredible eight in a row – increasing to 10 if you include his Saturday Sprint victories.
On lap 48 of the Miami Grand Prix, the reigning world champion started another amazing statistic. When he brilliantly passed his team-mate Sergio Perez to lead in Miami Gardens, no one else led at the front of the field for another 247 laps. It wasn’t until Verstappen pitted on lap 24 of the Austrian Grand Prix that he relinquished the lead, after he triumphed at Monaco, Spain and Canada in the meantime.
Red Bull has also broken a record, scoring 13 Grand Prix wins in a row, eclipsing McLaren’s long-standing achievement from 1988. Heading into the summer break, Verstappen has amassed 314 points and holds a commanding 125-point lead over his Mexican team-mate. He’s expected to wrap up his third world title at an early stage when racing resumes at the end of August.
Thanks to Red Bull and Verstappen’s brilliance, much of the intrigue in the opening half of the year has been the battle for ‘best of the rest.’ At the season opener in March, much to everyone’s surprise, it was Aston Martin that had made the biggest gains over the winter. Entering his 42nd year, Fernando Alonso made a superb start to 2023 scoring five podiums in the opening six races.
But as the season progressed, the battle in aerodynamic development also continued at a searing pace. At the first race in Bahrain, McLaren’s Lando Norris was classified in last place, but when a series of upgrades were fitted to his car in Austria — he was immediately fighting for the top positions. One race later, at his home race in Silverstone, Norris qualified on the front row of the grid and kept seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton behind him to score only the eighth podium of his career. It has been a remarkable turnaround for the team celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2023. Australian Oscar Piastri has also impressed in his rookie season, taking second place for McLaren in Spa’s Sprint race.
The other teams in the mix have been Mercedes and Ferrari with Hamilton, George Russell and Charles Leclerc all scoring podiums. In Monaco, Esteban Ocon took a welcome third place for the Alpine team, but behind the scenes they have undergone a surprise high-profile change in personnel just prior to the summer shutdown.
Another notable switch has taken place at Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri. After a disappointing start to the campaign, rookie Nyck de Vries has been replaced by fan-favorite Daniel Ricciardo — the Australian making a dramatic return that any Hollywood script would be proud of. Fitting then, that filming has started of the new blockbuster F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. He was on the grid at Silverstone and is expected to appear at more races as the second half of the season begins at Zandvoort on August 27th.
