Max Verstappen turned Formula 1 into his own private demolition derby — only he never crashed. But under the surface of Red Bull’s imperial march, the rest of the grid was a storm of desperation, upgrades, team orders, broken dreams, and the slow, silent death of belief.
The 2023 Formula One season — the 74th — wasn’t a title fight. It was a rout. Max Verstappen didn’t just win the World Championship — he swallowed it whole. He took 19 victories in 22 races, clinched the title six rounds early in a sprint race on a Saturday, and looked bored doing it. Red Bull created a monster in the RB19, and Verstappen drove it like he was possessed.
But outside that Red Bull garage? The chaos never stopped.
Ferrari panicked, Mercedes prayed, Aston Martin burned bright then burned out, McLaren went from nowhere to nearly everywhere, and Alpine imploded in public.
The championship was over by summer. But the real fight? It was survival — reputational, political, existential.
Key Highlights of the 2023 Season
– Verstappen wins 19 races, including a record 10 in a row. Clinches title in Qatar sprint.
– Red Bull win 21 of 22 races: Only Singapore breaks the streak (thanks to Ferrari).
– Sergio Pérez collapses mid-season: From early title talk to barely holding P2.
– Mercedes and Ferrari fumble with inconsistent cars, upgrades, and team dynamics.
– McLaren resurgence: After a horrendous start, they become Red Bull’s closest challenger late in the year.
– Aston Martin rise and fall: Fernando Alonso opens with 6 podiums in 8 races — then reality hits.
– Singapore chaos: Sainz wins. Russell bins it. Norris and Leclerc on the podium. No Red Bull in sight.
– Alpine civil war: Team bosses fired mid-season, on-air bickering, and zero coherent direction.
– AlphaTauri becomes a testing lab: de Vries out, Ricciardo in, then out again with injury, Lawson stuns everyone.
– Sprint format expanded: Still hated, still here.
– Logan Sargeant becomes the first American to score a point in over 30 years — barely.
The Story of the Season — One King, No Court, and the Ruins Left Behind
Let’s not dress it up.
Max Verstappen in 2023 was obscene.
He didn’t just win races — he erased doubt.
His smallest winning margin (when not penalized or stuck in chaos)? Over 5 seconds.
His largest? Over 30.
He set the record for most laps led in a single season — by July.
Every Sunday, it was the same script:
– Qualify on pole (or start P6 and fix it by Lap 10).
– Disappear.
– Mumble something about tire management.
– Win.
But while Verstappen was busy breaking records, the rest of the grid was unraveling like a pressure hose with a loose valve.
Sergio Pérez started strong, won two of the first four, then watched the gap to Verstappen turn into a canyon. He cracked under qualifying pressure, crashed repeatedly, and by season’s end, was barely holding onto P2. The whispers of Ricciardo got louder every weekend.
Mercedes talked reinvention, but brought the same confusing car with different sidepods. Hamilton kept them afloat with consistency and brilliance, but the magic wasn’t there. George Russell? Fast but twitchy. Silverstone was a glimmer. Vegas a flop.
Ferrari remained… Ferrari.
Fast on Saturdays. Strategically allergic on Sundays.
Leclerc took poles. Sainz took the only non-Red Bull win.
Neither ever felt like a threat.
Every radio message sounded like a crisis hotline.
And then came the sleeper story of the year — McLaren.
They started the season looking like they had built a bathtub. Dead last in Bahrain.
By mid-year? They were Verstappen’s most consistent shadow.
Lando Norris was relentless.
Oscar Piastri was ice-cold — taking a sprint win in Qatar and outqualifying Norris in Abu Dhabi.
The turnaround was staggering — like someone flipped a switch labeled “competence.”
Aston Martin started as the surprise of the year.
Alonso on the podium over and over.
But development stalled. The car regressed.
Fernando kept dragging it to places it didn’t belong — because that’s what Fernando does.
But by season’s end, the dream was fading.
Meanwhile, Alpine fired its leadership team mid-season, argued on camera, and slid toward irrelevance.
AlphaTauri turned into Red Bull’s HR experiment:
– de Vries axed by July.
– Ricciardo in, then injured.
– Liam Lawson steps in and nearly scores more points in five races than Nyck did in ten.
Even Williams showed signs of life — thanks to Alex Albon, who dragged the FW45 into Q3s it had no business reaching.
2023 was not competitive. But it was alive.
Just not at the front.
Off-Track Firestorms — Penalties, Power Plays, and Performance Clauses
There were protests. There were threats. There were mutterings about Red Bull’s dominance being “bad for the sport.”
Helmut Marko threw verbal grenades.
Toto Wolff and Fred Vasseur played media chess.
Christian Horner? Sat smug, sipped champagne, and watched the world burn.
The sprint format kept getting airtime, but no one really wanted it.
The Las Vegas GP debuted in a shower of LEDs and lawsuits.
FIA politics swirled — from budget cap noise to technical directive tweaks mid-season.
F1 remained a palace of drama, just without the tension up front.
Season Summary & Results
Twenty-two races.
- Max Verstappen – 19 wins, 575 points (Champion)
- Sergio Pérez – 2 wins, 285 points
- Lewis Hamilton – 0 wins, 234 points
- Fernando Alonso – 0 wins, 206 points
- Carlos Sainz – 1 win, 200 points
- Lando Norris – 0 wins, 205 points
Red Bull: 21 wins, 860 Constructors’ points.
They crushed it. With one car.
Legacy — The Art of Crushing, and the Cracks That Showed Beneath
2023 will go down as a statistical massacre — and a case study in what dominance looks like when it’s unopposed.
But it was more than just Verstappen’s parade.
It was the foreshadowing of a reshuffle.
– McLaren’s rise.
– Ferrari’s brief pulse.
– Mercedes’ identity crisis.
– Piastri, Norris, Albon, Lawson — the next guard sharpening their knives.
Max Verstappen may have left nothing but ashes in his wake.
But under the smoke, something stirred.
2023 wasn’t suspenseful. But it was structural.
The cracks in the dynasty are forming.
Someone — someday — is coming.
