The hidden joy in Verstappen's 1000 F1 laps led record

There was a rather different atmosphere pervading throughout the Formula 1 paddock at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After 22 races – and one aborted trip to Italy most paddock personnel at least partially embarked upon back in May – the usual end-of-term air ran all around.

At the same time, for many people who had crossed the globe on the 8200-mile journey (as the crow flies, at least) from Las Vegas, exhaustion reigned supreme.

Which brand or form of melatonin might help best with time zone realignment? Did you hear Christian Horner quip “I sincerely hope that subscriptions to Lemsip are not within the budget cap”? What had kicked off the illness making its way so well through the Mercedes camp, team boss Toto Wolff decried he had been “the last of the Mohicans here standing” before being struck with a debilitating cough?

George Russell certainly had an uncomfortable race around the Yas Marina track as a result. Having been “really ill the last two weeks” – a situation not helped by fever and then a five-hour flight delay leaving Vegas that eventually had him eating a 3am breakfast with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in a 24-hour Dallas diner as they battled to live swiftly on Abu Dhabi Time – his condition worsened over the final weekend.

Come the race, he had a “horrendous cough that stayed with me all week and in the car”.

“I was coughing every single lap,” Russell added. “But when you're strapped into the car, you can't breathe. You can't take a deep breath in to get the cough out. So, it was just constantly with me. It was pretty miserable. I was pleased to bring it home when I saw that chequered flag.”

Such a downbeat illustration serves to highlight two things.

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Russell had been struck by illness in Abu Dhabi but managed to haul Mercedes onto the podium in the finale

One, what a fine job Russell nevertheless did after getting jumped by Lando Norris through the race’s opening corners. He’d led the line for Mercedes in qualifying and finally ended what he called “one of the worst” campaigns of his racing life with a second 2023 podium where Russell might’ve had at least five more.

The other was the sense of achievement at having completed another F1 campaign.

For Russell this included earning a new contract extension at the Black Arrows squad until the end of 2025. For so many of the brilliant people working up and down the pitlane, plus those who strive to get the show on the road and into existence, there were countless examples of brilliance.

For the world champion, the records, and the sheer mass of unprecedented success, were simply sensational.

Verstappen had known he’d need to lead at least 49 tours last Sunday to cross into yet more unparalleled F1 territory

All told, Max Verstappen ends the year with a record 19 single season win total – part of Red Bull’s new record 21 (and a new percentage record of 95.5%) in team terms.

Then for Verstappen alone there were new records for highest driver winning percentage in a season (86%), most consecutive wins (10), most wins from pole (12), most consecutive wins from pole (22, from the 2022 Dutch GP), most pole-win-fastest-lap hat-tricks (six), most points in a season (575), most podiums in a season (21) and the biggest points gap between first and second in the standings (290 to Sergio Perez).

PLUS: 10 moments that won Verstappen the 2023 Formula 1 title

Verstappen completed every racing lap possible in the 2023 campaign, on the way joined a small club of triple world champions and now sits alongside F1 legends Juan Manuel Fangio and Jack Brabham, plus Nelson Piquet, in having sealed a title in a Saturday race.

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Verstappen broke countless F1 records in his dominant 2023 campaign

But as he crossed the line in Abu Dhabi last Sunday, Verstappen ended the year on 1003 racing laps led in 2023. A simply stunning figure with which to illustrate his unprecedented dominance. Handy given those 19 wins will blur in the passage of time.

But there was an additional element to this achievement in the race he won ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Russell.

This was how Verstappen had been aware of the accolade coming into the race. That his previous total after that battling win in Vegas had stood at 951 laps led in 2023, with a possible 58 still to come.

Verstappen had known he’d need to lead at least 49 tours last Sunday to cross into yet more unparalleled F1 territory. His maximum possible total was reduced by six during the first pitstop phase for the leaders, where first Leclerc and then AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, unaware he was doing so, led six laps.

Red Bull had considered completing the race on a one-stopper. And, while Verstappen had the pace to do so once he’d begun to stretch anyway from Leclerc on the hard compound and Ferrari’s attention turned to any strategy that might stop Mercedes’ march towards securing second in the constructors’ championship, the increase in tyre degradation thwarted this plan.

PLUS: Why F1's 2023 Abu Dhabi GP finale wasn't a better race

Red Bull had spotted this on the starting mediums and so was left convinced converting to a second service, a plan it already knew the recovering Perez would be getting, was safest for the leader too.

Verstappen, his tyre management gift at a course where precise, slide-minimising driving is rewarded, reckoned “the tyres still felt OK”. But he didn’t object too much, so long as Red Bull didn’t pit him too early and risk reducing that possible laps total further.

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Pitting after Perez for his second stop guaranteed Verstappen would break the laps led record - something he was very aware of at the time

“I knew it was on the cards, of course, going into the race,” he added. “And also, from the engineering side with the strategy, we wanted to try and plan it in a way that I wouldn't pit too early. So, just wait for others to pit. Of course, to try and achieve that was maybe not always the fastest strategy. But I wanted to stay in the lead to get the laps in.”

This further explains his call for Red Bull to consider pitting Perez first of the second services when he’d cycled through to second as Norris, Russell and Leclerc pitted again.

The concern that message betrayed stands up, as with Perez also yet to stop and needing a tyre-life offset to complete the drive to the podium he wrecked with his poor slide into Norris at Turn 6, the chance of Verstappen’s targeted final laps led record being achieved had slimmed thanks to AlphaTauri’s one-stop tactic for Tsunoda. In the end, however, it didn’t matter.

It’s a competitive advantage to look at comparisons to Fangio, Senna or Schumacher and then bat them away anyway. Doing so minimises the risk of losing focus in the championship-building game and keeps potential valuable mindset intel away from opponents

But here we might reflect that celebrating a niche moment of a crushing season highlights again where relative joy had to be found in this year, devoid as it was by a lack of opposition to Red Bull up front.

But, also, that it was interesting Verstappen even cared.

This is the driver who consistently replies “I find it very hard to compare world champions or even non-world champions” when asked about matching or beating existing driving feats, or comparisons to other F1 greats and multi-champions.

We’ve known for some time this is something of a facade. That the driver who “tells [it] straightforward how things are”, per his father Jos, actually “knows about the wins and things”. It’s just that for the elder Verstappen, the situation is: “I don’t think it matters too much to him”.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Maybe Verstappen does have one eye on the F1 record books after all

In choosing not to engage with the discourse around his many achievements as F1’s current leading star, we can see how the directness cuts both ways. That it’s possible to be somewhat fixated on wins and stats to prove your class above the rest and at the same time shroud the reality for your own gain.

It’s a competitive advantage to look at comparisons to Fangio, Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher and then bat them away anyway. Doing so minimises the risk of losing focus in the championship-building game over such long, tiring seasons. It also keeps potential valuable mindset intel away from opponents.

Maybe it was the end-of-year delight that had Verstappen – along with Leclerc and Russell – wishing the few press conference attendees at the far end of the Yas Marina paddock alongside Autosport a happy winter break as he headed back outside to celebrate with his team. Normally the drivers can’t get away quick enough.

Surely that same guard-lowering, ‘school’s out’ feeling – one that had Russell amusingly gesturing behind his rival’s head that money was a key motivator in Verstappen’s six wins since clinching the title two months ago – was what revealed that Verstappen indeed cared for stats and achievements he’s historically dismissed.

And how excellent it is to know he does care – even if it is only to a limited extent.

F1, with a world champion that takes some joy in the little things many fans really love, on what is a rather relentless march around the world at times, is all the better for it.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Can Verstappen's 2023 F1 season ever be topped?