The 2023 season of Formula 1 started with an air of hope that maybe, just maybe, the world could witness an end to the ‘Red Bull Dominance’. Mercedes posed a credible threat when their championship-contesting car was unveiled. McLaren and Ferrari were considered strong contenders too. Well, Ferrari was considered only with the exception that their Race strategy didn’t fail them.

The season started off with a much-expected Max Verstappen win in Bahrain, continuing where they left off leagues ahead of the rest of the field! Sergio Perez then won the following race in Saudi Arabia, which did make the fans think that Max had finally met his match and had to fight for the title. Max and Perez then exchanged wins in Rounds 3 and 4, which had all of us fooled as we were under the impression that this year was interesting with the addition that Mercedes wasn’t alone in the fight for 2nd in the constructors championship as Ferrari were contesting for it, but to everyone’s surprise, Aston Martin were actually 2nd.

The year rapidly took a dive in terms of excitement for most fans other than Max’s fans. Max then went on to win 10 races in a row, an emphatic feat that was previously thought to be unbeatable, as the last person to set the record of nine wins in a row was the legendary Sebastian Vettel in 2009! If that isn’t enough evidence that Red Bull weren’t dominating, they even broke a record that they had set by winning 15 straight races as a team!

The only time Max and Red Bull had shown weakness throughout the entire season was at the iconic Singapore Grand Prix. All the fans headed into the weekend expecting the usual Max Verstappen dominance, but were greeted with a delightful race that had constant action, with fan favourite Carlos Sainz from Ferrari winning and Mercedes’ George Russell ending up in the wall.

As soon as Singapore was past Red Bull, they were back to their winning ways and dominated the field yet again in Japan, leading Red Bull to become back-to-back constructors champions and giving Max that last push to seal the coveted Drivers Championship. 

Upon their arrival in Qatar this weekend, everyone knew that Max was going to win the title, but not in the usual Sunday Grand Prix. Max only needed three points to clinch the title, and he had secured it after a sprint race on Saturday, which no one really expected and probably enraged the plethora of fans that were against sprint races being introduced into F1 (Max being one of them, the irony of the situation)

So there you have it: Max smashing every record he could’ve possibly smashed in a single calendar year, but no one can argue about the talent this young lad possesses. The sad fact for most F1 fans? He’s just getting started. Are we spell-bound for another rendition of Lewis’ dominance? Yes, we’re living in Max’s Era!

Penned By:

Rtr. Yohan Wickramasinghe

Co Editor 23-24