2023 might have been the most dominant season F1 in history, as Redbull won 21/22 races this year with Max Verstappen winning 19 of them.

It will likely be remembered as the season where Max Verstappen broke almost every record in imaginable, such as most consecutive race wins (10), highest winning percentage (86.3%) and most laps lead in a season (1003) just to name a few. While Redbull and Verstappen stole the headlines this season there were still some great performances and amazing races that challenged them throughout 2023.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin have never been a front running team in F1. Since their inception in 2021 they have taken only two podiums, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel. When Vettel retired at the end of last year, the team replaced him with another multiple world champion, Fernando Alonso. Fernando spent most of the 2010s and early 2020s jumping between different midfield teams but never found success at any of them, taking just one podium since 2013.

It looked like Alonso had finally made the right move as Aston Martin looked quick during pre season testing. This form would continue into the first race of the season with Alonso qualifying P5 on his debut with the team, ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.

Alonso would get a poor start, falling down to eighth however the Aston Martin quickly proved to be the 2nd fastest car over race distance as Alonso and teammate stroll quickly moved up the order. Alonso would go on a charge during the race, overtaking the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russel. Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari broke down during the race which promoted teammate Carlos Sainz up to 3rd. Alonso would pass Sainz in the final few laps to take a podium in his first race with Aston Martin.

Finishing behind the two Redbulls indicated that Aston Martin were now the second fastest team on the grid. This form continued into the first few races of the season with Alonso finishing on the podium in five of the first six races as the other teams tried to catch up.

McLaren

While Aston Martin hit the ground running in 2023 with a great car, many other teams started the year on the back foot, and none more so than McLaren. The team started the season off with a car that was not only slow but also unreliable.

The first race in Bahrain saw rookie driver Oscar Piastry retire during the race with a electronic issue while Lando Norris suffered a pneumatic pressure leak on the power unit side which forced him to pit every 10 laps to recharge the power system.

Things wouldn’t get much better for the Woking outfit and by the 8th round off the season they had scored just 17 points compared to Aston Martins 154.

At the next race in Austria, the team introduced a new upgrade package that would be installed on Lando Norris car. Norris would finish that race P4, taking the teams points total from 17 to 29. Piastry finished 16th with the old car however there were doubts as to whether this was due to the upgrades or Lando outperforming his Rookie teammate.

Any scepticism over the upgrades was obliterated at the next grand prix at Silverstone. With the upgrades now on Piastry’s car as well they would qualify 2nd and 3rd behind only Max Verstappen.

Norris took the lead off Verstappen at the start, to the roar off the Silverstone crowd and while he couldn’t hang onto it he did finish the race in 2nd place with Piastri finishing 4th.

Now with the second fastest car, McLaren would go on a great run of form throughout the second half of the season taking 8 podiums.

This included double podiums at the Japanese and Qatar grand prix as McLaren became Verstappen’s nearest challenger. They would go onto to finish the season in 4th place ahead of Aston Martin who at one point were 137 points ahead of them!

Oscar Piastri

As mentioned earlier, 2023 was Oscar Piastri’s rookie season. Before he even got to F1 Piastri was already making a name for himself, having won the Formula Renault Eurocup in his first season. He would then progress onto F3 the following year, becoming the champion in his first season. A year later he became the F2 champion, and at the age of 20 he was unsurprisingly hot property amongst F1 teams.

Piastri did not simply climb the junior single-seater ladder, he charged up it to knock loudly on the F1 door. Before 2023, Piastri had been a junior driver for the Alpine team, and so when Alonso left the team last year they quickly announced that Piastri would be his replacement for 2023.

However, in a now infamous tweet Piastri denied this, saying that he would not be driving for Alpine in 2023. It was later revealed that he would be driving for McLaren in 2023. This was extremely controversial at the time and ended up going to court, who ruled that McLaren were in the right and that Piastri would be driving for them in 2023.

Now with even more pressure on him to succeed in F1, he would need to hit the ground running and he did just that, outqualifying teammate Lando Norris in the second round in Saudi Arabia. He would follow that up with a P8 finish at his home race in Melbourne, taking his first points in just his 3rd race.

When the upgrades arrived at Silverstone Piastri was quickly on the pace, qualifying 3rd behind Norris and would’ve finished on the podium if it wasn’t for a poorly timed safety car.

He would finally get to spray the champagne at the Japanese grand prix as he finished 3rd to take his first podium in F1.

He would carry that momentum into the next race in Qatar, qualifying on pole position for the sprint race. He held off challenges from more experienced drivers such as George Russel and Verstappen to win his first race in F1.

While not a grand prix, Piastri’s sprint race win meant that he had won a race before his teammate Lando Norris, who in his 5 seasons in F1 has finished 2nd 7 times and is yet to win a grand prix.

Piastry would follow that up by finishing second during the grand prix, behind only Max Verstappen.

Driving at such a high standard and standing on the podium alongside established drivers like Norris and Verstappen has marked Piastri as a star for the future in F1.

The Singapore Grand Prix

Redbull came agonisingly close to achieving a perfect season this year, however there was one race that they didn’t win and that was the Singapore grand prix.

Redbull knew that this race was going to be their biggest and pretty much only challenge of the year. This was seen during practice as Ferrari topped every session as Redbull struggled to keep up.

Things went from bad to worse on Saturday as the bulls only managed to qualify 13th and 11th, the first time that Redbull failed to make Q3 since Russia 2018.

Redbull knew that they would need some luck if they were to have any chance of winning the grand prix. They decided to start on the hard tyres, going long into the race, hoping that a late safety car would give them a cheap pit stop. Unfortunately for them, the safety car came out on lap 20/62 which gave everyone else a chance to stop under the safety car.

When the safety car came in, the drivers that pitted quickly overtook the Redbulls, taking full advantage of the fresher tyres. This left Carlos Sainz, George Russel, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton to fight for the victory.

On lap 43 the safety car came out once again as Esteban Ocons Alpine pulled over with a mechanical problem. Mercedes took this opportunity to pit both drivers, giving Russel and Hamilton the chance to go on the attack in final few laps.

The Mercedes pair would catch up to race leader Sainz on lap 58 but would have to get past second place Lando Norris. With fresh tyres this would’ve been relatively easy for Russel and Hamilton however Sainz had other ideas. He slowed down to give Lando Norris DRS, the extra speed helping him stay ahead of the Mercedes meaning that they couldn’t get passed him and therefore couldn’t get near Sainz.

Russel would’ve been frustrated looking at the rear wing of Norris for so long, knowing that he had the pace to get ahead of him.

This frustration would boil over on lap 62 as Russel crashed out of the race on the final lap, ending his chances of victory and promoting Hamilton up to 3rd.

But it was Ferraris Carlos Sainz who won the Singapore grand prix, ending Redbulls winning streak to take his second victory in F1. This was definitely the most memorable race of the 2023 season as instead of the usual Verstappen dominance, we were treated to a race where the win was up for grabs and ended up coming down to the very… last … lap.

Liam Lawson

Oscar Piastri wouldn’t be the only rookie driver this season as he would be joined by Logan Sargeant and Nick De Vries, the latter driving for Alpha Tauri. De Vries would struggle to keep up with teammate Yuki Tsunoda and was making a lot of mistakes.

The Alpha Tauri at this point in the season was on average the slowest car with De Vries failing to score a single point. Come round 9 at the British grand prix his team had enough and sacked him for Daniel Riccardo.

Riccardo was on the pace straight away and was much closer to his teammate than De Vries was. This wouldn’t last long however as during FP1 at the Dutch grand prix he crashed, injuring his wrist and forcing him to sit out the next few grand prix.

Alpha Tauri now had to search for another replacement and decided to go for Liam Lawson.

Lawson had finished 3rd in F2 the previous year and as a Redbull junior driver he was the perfect fit for them.

After missing out on Friday practice, Lawson unsurprisingly qualified last for what would be his first F1 race.

He would convert that P20 to a P13 in the race, finishing ahead of his teammate in a wet/dry race.

Two races later came the Singapore grand prix where Lawson would qualify 10th, ahead of Max Verstappen, knocking him out of Q3. He would follow that up with a P9 finish taking his first points in F1 in just his 3rd race.

Lawson would stay with the team for the next two races at Japan and Qatar impressing during both races. His F1 career would come to an end, for now at least, as Riccardo returned for the last five races of the season.

Away from F1, Lawson has been racing in Japan in the super formula series, finishing 2nd this year. With 13 F1 drivers contracts expiring next year, Lawson will be first in line for an F1 seat next year, most likely with Alpha Tauri.

With the 2023 F1 season now over fans will be expecting a more competitive season next year and with so many drivers out of contract, 2024 should be a far more entertaining season both on and off track.

Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram @bloggp_8 for all the latest F1 news throughout the 2024 season and beyond.