As the sun set on the 2023 F1 season there was still one race left to go but there was really no doubt as to who would be standing on the top of the podium. All eyes would be on second place, more specifically second place in the constructors standings which has been fiercely contested by Ferrari and Mercedes all season. There was also a fierce battle for 4th in the drivers standings between Norris, Leclerc, Sainz and Fernando Alonso.

The race got off to a clean start with Leclerc taking the tighter inside line allowing Verstappen to sweep round the outside where he would stay for pretty much the full race.

Leclerc did go for a lunge into turn 6 but couldn’t get past Verstappen who began to sail off into the distance which is something he’s made quite a habit of this year.

Most drivers opted to go for a two stop strategy, however there were some who chose to go for the one stop. One of those drivers was Yuki Tsunoda who after qualifying a personal best 6 yesterday, became the first Japanese driver to lead an F1 race since Takuma Sato at the Nurburgring in 2004. This would’ve put a smile on the face of team boss Franz Tost during what was his last race as team principle for the team. He’s been principle of the team since it was founded in 2005, when it was still called Toro Rosso and he has overseen some great drivers race for his team such as Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Riccardo and Max Verstappen. In fact, 8 of the 20 rivers on the grid currently, have raced for his team at one point in their careers.

Another driver that was on a different strategy was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. After he qualified a disastrous 16, the team opted to go for a two stop race, going extremely long in the second stint hoping for a safety car that would give them a cheap stop. Unfortunately for him the safety car never came out which resulted in him finishing an excruciating 18th place in the Ferrari. While the safety car never came out, there were still some incidents.

Lewis Hamilton clipped the back of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine damaging the back of Gasly’s car and the front wing of Hamilton’s car, effectively ruining both of their races.

Sergio Perez was making his way through the field when he approached the back of Lando Norris’s McLaren. Perez sent it down the inside into turn 6, banging wheels with Norris and earning himself a penalty which would end up costing himself a place on the podium.

Strangely, this penalty would also end up costing Ferrari second in the championship.

Sergio Perez was in 3rd place, behind Leclerc and Verstappen with George Russel behind in the Mercedes. If the race were to finish this way, Ferrari would’ve outscored Mercedes by enough points to take second place in the standings. But the penalty for Perez put him behind Russel, promoting the Mercedes driver onto the podium and taking enough points to stay ahead of Ferrari in the standings. Leclerc let Perez passed on the last lap in the hope that in clean air Perez would be able to get far enough ahead of Russel that he would finish on the podium despite his penalty. But this never happened meaning that Mercedes finished second in the constructors standings to take an extra $10,000,000 in prize money and the motivation to take the challenge to Redbull next season.

But out in front, as usual, it was Max Verstappen who took his 19th victory of the season, breaking his own record for most wins in a season. Throughout this season he also broke the record for most consecutive race wins (10), most podium finishes (21), highest points total (575) and largest championship-winning margin (290). This was his 54th win in formula one, putting him ahead of Sebastian Vettel and 3rd overall in the list of winners in F1, behind only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton and considering he’s only 26, he could very well be top of the list by the time he retires.

2023 definitely wasn’t the most exiting season in the history of the sport. But it will be remembered as one of, if not the most dominant season in F1’s history with Verstappen winning all but 3 of the 22 races this year. The gap from 1-2 in the standings was bigger than the gap from 2-20. Verstappen was the only driver to finish every race this season making pretty much no mistakes in what is the very definition of a perfect season.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results:

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	58	1:27:02.624	26
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	58	+17.993s	18
3	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	58	+20.328s	15
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	58	+21.453s	12
5	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	58	+24.284s	10
6	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	58	+31.487s	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	58	+39.512s	6
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	58	+43.088s	4
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	58	+44.424s	2
10	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	58	+55.632s	1
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	58	+56.229s	0
12	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+66.373s	0
13	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+70.360s	0
14	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	58	+73.184s	0
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	58	+83.696s	0
16	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	58	+87.791s	0
17	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	58	+89.422s	0
18	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	57	DNF	0
19	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	57	+1 lap	0
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	57	+1 lap	0

George Russel finished second in what is only his second podium of the season.

In the fight for 4th in the drivers standings, Fernando’s P7 finish was enough for him to finish 4th in the standings which is the fist time he’s finished in the top 4 since 2013!

2023 Formula One Championship Standings:

POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	CAR	PTS
1	Max Verstappen	NED	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	575
2	Sergio Perez	MEX	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	285
3	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	MERCEDES	234
4	Fernando Alonso	ESP	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	206
5	Charles Leclerc	MON	FERRARI	206
6	Lando Norris	GBR	MCLAREN MERCEDES	205
7	Carlos Sainz	ESP	FERRARI	200
8	George Russell	GBR	MERCEDES	175
9	Oscar Piastri	AUS	MCLAREN MERCEDES	97
10	Lance Stroll	CAN	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	74
11	Pierre Gasly	FRA	ALPINE RENAULT	62
12	Esteban Ocon	FRA	ALPINE RENAULT	58
13	Alexander Albon	THA	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	27
14	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	17
15	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	10
16	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	HAAS FERRARI	9
17	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	6
18	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	6
19	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	HAAS FERRARI	3
20	Liam Lawson	NZL	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	2
21	Logan Sargeant	USA	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1
22	Nyck De Vries	NED	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	0

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