Max Verstappen was the only driver who consistently extracted the maximum from his car during the 2023 season, the bosses of his two closest rivals admitted.
While Red Bull dominated the season, Verstappen was consistently their quickest driver and won 19 out of the 22 grands prix. His team mate Sergio Perez often failed to qualify in the top 10 and ended the season with less than half his team mate’s points score.Ferrari and Mercedes saw greater swings in performance between their two drivers. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr “had different momentum during the season,” admitted Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.
“I think it’s true that the Carlos was very, vey strong after the summer break and Charles was flying in the last six or seven events,” he said. “But overall I think the evaluation that we had into the team was a good one.”
While Verstappen usually had a comfortable margin over his rivals, especially in race trim, for those behind him the slightest difference in a drivers’ confidence could significantly affect their results, said Vasseur.
“It was true for every single team except Max everybody on the grid had up-and-down during the season,” he acknowledged. “It’s very, very tight so sometimes for one tenth [of a second] or one tenth and a half, because you like the track or you like the set-up of the car this day, you can move from P2-P3 to P10 and then it’s almost a disaster.”
Mercedes found the swings in performance between their drivers was especially acute over the course of the season. Lewis Hamilton ended the season with a string of finishes outside the top six, but earlier in the year he had performed better while George Russell was the one who struggled.
Like Vasseur, Wolff said the one driver who was a constant throughout the season was Verstappen.
“It’s difficult to comprehend that good drivers in various teams have these oscillations of performance,” he said. “You’ve seen it this weekend with Sainz and Leclerc, you’ve seen it with George and Lewis, Oscar [Piastri] and Lando [Norris].
“And the obvious one is Perez and Verstappen. Perez is not a second slower than Max. So, what is that?
“We have seen it swinging in both directions. So fundamentally, I think it’s all around the tyre grip. If you are able to have the car in a sweet spot, a stable platform that you start the work with the beginning of the weekend, then you can extract performance.
“I think if you’re not, there’s just no performance. You’re falling off the cliff, literally. So I have no explanation for that.
“I think the only one this year who has understood how to drive these tyres is Max.”
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2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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Anuj Chopra
30th November 2023, 7:57
SuperMax!!!
Aquila_GD
30th November 2023, 9:04
Max was absolutely supreme this year. No doubt about that. Other drivers turned to whiners at different points. Just sad that the season was not as interesting in terms of a championship battle.
Luke
30th November 2023, 8:09
Alonso?
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
30th November 2023, 8:23
Given that he damaged his car in qualifying in Spain during qualifying and as a result didn’t beat Stroll or come anywhere near the maximum result, then spin in Las Vegas, he certainly didn’t get the best from his car every weekend.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th November 2023, 12:36
If we have to point out a bad race for alonso, I would go with singapore.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
30th November 2023, 19:17
There is that yes, But Las Vegas was certainly bad unless Stroll was stunning.
Alonso started 9th, Stroll 10 places behind him in 19th.
Alonso spun all on his own, and as a result wercked Bottas’s car who was likely set for a points finish.
Alonso was lucky enough to benefit from the safety cars to recover into the points.
Stroll gained a huge amount of places on lap one and finished some way and several places ahead of him.
Stroll’s race was very good but I also think I have to say Alonso’s was the opposite.
Dex
30th November 2023, 8:58
Definitely not Alonso. Maybe 90% of the weekends (still better than most).
Robert Henning
30th November 2023, 8:11
That Mexico Ferrari pole out of nowhere when temperatures dropped is a fantastic example of how bad these pirellis are.
I’d say it’s more RB but Max after Baku experiments has figured out how to keep all tires in all conditions in proper conditions for a race stint.
Perez and his gaps to Max on changing conditions only kept increasing but in a track like Vegas he was quite fast and within a tenth or two.
Fred has got this assessment spot on with his tire remark. Pirellis are too thermal sensitive and other teams lack consistent downforce to keep them in shape for a race stint.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
30th November 2023, 9:14
This is why Max has pulled off the greatest season in F1 history, which won’t be matched by anybody until there’s a way to enhance drivers with AI. Schumacher, Hamilton and Vettel had much more dominant cars, yet they all made multiple mistakes during ALL their title campaigns. Max made zero, nada, zilch, extracting everything from his car and himself every single weekend.
I warned you this was about to happen if you give Max a car, which is the fastest, not even absurdly so like Ferrari F2002/2004, Red Bull 2009-2013 or Mercedes 2014-2020. And I warn you again: unless his rivals have a car at least 0.2-0.3/lap quicker than Red Bull, Max will beat them again, again and again, until Liberty Media says enough and introduces success ballast or whatever, because on pure skills alone Max is simply unbeatable over the course of a season.
George (@fedar)
30th November 2023, 17:16
Even if I agree with the general sentiment of your post (if somewhat exaggerated) I think it is a bit difficult to make such bold predictions for the future, as the form of most athletes fluctuates during their careers. Granted, Max is exceptional and so far has been relentless, however there is no guarantee that he will continue like that for the years to come. Mental fatigue and many other factors could have a negative impact on him. Only time will tell …
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
30th November 2023, 9:20
I don’t think he did. Singapore being one weekend when he underperformed in quali significantly. There were quite a few poor quali performances but with a car that has a significant pace advantage its hard to tell if its even a challenge. Las Vegas being another poor performance but saved by the safety car. The absolute passive nature of F1 drivers nowadays there is barely an attempt to keep faster cars back any more or attempt to re-overtake so its even less of challenge to driver up front.
MichaelN
30th November 2023, 9:59
Agreed, he had his weaker sessions. It was still the best performance of any of the drivers, of that there is no doubt, but let’s leave some room for that truly perfect season.
Rolfski (@rolfski)
30th November 2023, 14:38
Singapore was a quite obvious case of the car and not so much the driver underperforming, you could literally see it slip and slide during practice and qualifying. Max actually performed remarkably well on race day, after the team had reverted some setup changes, and would have been on the podium if it wasn’t for two unlucky safety cars.
As for Las Vegas, Max actually drove a brilliant race in his typical cheeky style, if you know where to look:
1. Still got a better start on the dirty oil side than Charles on the clean side.
2. Unlike Fernando, he kept his steer straight when he lost grip at turn 1. Which is the right thing to do. Otherwise, he would have spun and his race would likely have been over. Not giving that position back feels like an exploit but that’s not Red Bull’s fault.
3. His leading at the safety car ending where he stepped on the gas, made a hard brake in turn 14, and then stepped on it again leaving Charles in the dust, was a classic Max-on-the-edge exploit. Normally you can’t do that but since he was in the middle of a double-corner, he could always defend himself that he just had to do that to keep his car on the track.
4. At the pit lane exit he had to fight off Lance but was still keen enough to notice that Ocon outside on track was not paying attention. So he accelerated out of the pitlane, barely keeping his car under control, and overtook him before the safety car line under the yellow flag, which is just genius.
5. His pace on the hards was ridiculous. Even with a broken wing, he was still overtaking the whole field, including his teammate on similar old tires who didn’t have damage.
6. He deliberately made an early brake after overtaking Charles, which prevented Charles from steering in and ruined his turn-14 corner exit.
The Las Vegas race was classic Max, who extracted every trick from every grey area of the rulebook and combined with his insane pace on the hards, overcame everything that the race threw at him.
Laz
30th November 2023, 11:47
I think the problem with judging Max’s performance is he and Red Bull were so far out in front there was no one pushing him. No one to test him. So he was for the in cruise control for most of the year. Undoubtedly he was superb as he absolutely destroyed Perez, but to see the best of a driver you need to have someone else pushing them to the point where the odd mistake does creep in.
G
30th November 2023, 12:24
With Max having a dominant car you can only really measure him by his consistency.
There have been drivers in the past with cars just as dominant, if not more, and haven’t produced the consistent results we have just seen. 2023 was just utter domination by car and driver.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th November 2023, 12:39
Indeed, hamilton tended to phone it in once the title was mathematically won, think about 2017, he hardly made mistakes all season, then once he won the title he crashed in quali in brazil and had to start from the back.
A M (@amam)
30th November 2023, 18:39
Don’t compare 2017 with 2023. The SF70 was on par with the W08 (or not far off). The Rb19 is an absolute rocketship in a compete league of its own. This as a reminder, from Alonso, how close the Ferrari and Merc cars were in 2017 overall
https://www.racefans.net/2018/04/02/racefans-round-up-02-04/
F1 Fan
1st December 2023, 22:30
Hamilton was off pace to Bottas multiple times in 2017. That’s a serious issue. He barely won the title with a car that comfortably had a better engine and almost impossible to overtake and in fact just had to rely on Ferrari to implode to win easily.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
30th November 2023, 12:18
Certainly on the Sunday and that’s including Singapore. Closely followed by Fernando I’d say. Perez must be at the bottom of this list, yet he still finished 2nd in the championship.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
30th November 2023, 12:24
The thing is, yes Max’s performance was absolutely great, but there’s a very very good team behind him as well.
Too often this year, and last year to a degree, one or other team failed to utilise the best strategy, or upgrades just plain failed etc etc.
The RBR team seems to have everything from team management and design right down to the mechanics in the garage. The whole thing is just a well oiled machine that delivers and when you do something like that for a driver of Max’s caliber, he’ll look imperious.
MadMax (@madmax)
30th November 2023, 12:36
Even Perez would have win the WDC in the RBR rocketship, as his P2 with 50+ points margin shows. And nobody would probably say, that he had a great season. This clearly shows the level of dominance of the RBR car.
Its hard to judge a drivers performance, with nobody pushing him to the limits of the car. Midfield was tight, so the drivers there needed to drive at their cars limits most of the time.
As for Max you can easily see, whether Max is at the limits of his car, by counting the beeps on his radio. Didnt happen too often, as he was able to coast around in his rocketship most of the time.
This guy
30th November 2023, 18:12
The only reason Perez took 2nd place, was because of the close field behind him.
There was no constant second team, like we had last season with Ferrari.
MadMax (@madmax)
30th November 2023, 22:47
and so even his performance would have been enough to win WDC, due to RBRs superior car
Moi
30th November 2023, 19:54
Do you also perform at children’s birthday parties?
MadMax (@madmax)
30th November 2023, 22:46
cant you handle reality?
Robert Henning
1st December 2023, 22:31
I don’t think you and many others live in 2023.
melanos
1st December 2023, 22:37
Each time I read “rocketship” in a post I know it is not mature enough for a toddler readership
Four Four Seven (@fourfourseven)
30th November 2023, 13:10
What a yawn fest car number 33 was built around him for him and thanks to overspending we get an average driver in a fast car. No better than Vettel,just wait till he starts losing he will to gone.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
30th November 2023, 14:52
I will never understand F1 viewers like yourself, to be honest. Like, I was never the biggest Michael Schumacher fan, the guy just didn’t click with me, always rooted for the other guys, whether it was Hill, or Villeneuve, or Hakkinen. But I’ll be darned if I never respected the magic that was his commitment and sheer magic of his craft behind the wheel.
Like what do you even gain by writing this stuff?
Coventry Climax
30th November 2023, 22:56
Same here.
SteveR (@stever)
30th November 2023, 15:31
What an odd comment.
melanos
1st December 2023, 22:32
Surely you drive a lot better than Max, as he is just an average driver, I am sure you are better than average. Just challenge Max for a drive and show us what you are made off
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
30th November 2023, 19:47
As Brundle said “the Red Bull looked like a different category car” and Hamilton said to the BBC that it’s clear that Max was just chilling and not pushing the car to its limits.
I’m not sure if that’s getting the best out of the car necessarily. In the same manner that Messi would shine in a class of young soccer player, Max shone as much.
I don’t think it was taxing at all except at the beginning but Red Bull quickly ended Perez’ aspirations of ever finding himself next to Max on track for position and I think they did in Vegas, right? That was pretty funny – I’m sure Marko and Horner must have been amused thinking how that came to fruition despite all their planning.
melanos
1st December 2023, 22:47
Sounds like the kind of truthful and uninterested source I would blindly trust
Michael A.
1st December 2023, 1:00
“Mercedes found the swings in performance between their drivers was especially acute over the course of the season. Lewis Hamilton ended the season with a string of finishes outside the top six, but earlier in the year he had performed better while George Russell was the one who struggled.”
I have a strong feeling that George Russell really ‘struggled’ through the 2023 season. My belief is that Russell’s performance in 2022 was quite a shock to Hamilton. This year, it is possible that Russell was directed by the Mercedes-Benz team to play a support role for their ‘star’ team leader Hamilton.
Sort of reminds me of the ‘foreign substance in the steering column’ that prevented Rosberg from selecting several gears in the transmission.
Just my interpretation.
Michael A.
1st December 2023, 1:18
My clumsy mistake:
“I have a strong feeling that George Russell really ‘struggled’ through the 2023 season.”
Should have read:
I have a strong feeling that George Russell had not really ‘struggled’ through the 2023 season.
Old age . . .