The 10 critical moments that defined the 2023 F1 season

“Everything went perfect.” That was how Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz summed up the team’s season launch back in mid-February. On that sunny day at Fiorano, Ferrari seemed so confident, so smooth. But barely three weeks later, Charles Leclerc, with Sainz well adrift, had not only been comprehensively defeated at the very Bahrain venue where in 2022 Ferrari had started off with a win, but his new car had let him down too.

As the Formula 1 teams left Bahrain in the wake of Max Verstappen’s first win of an eventual 19, and with a jumbled competitive order behind, the story of the season instead became the question as to whether Red Bull could really win every single race, as Mercedes driver George Russell was soon suggesting.

Testing’s only surprises are behind Red Bull

In what now must be viewed as foreshadowing the year to come, the only problem Red Bull faced in pre-season testing at the Bahrain track, which again hosted the season opener, came via Sergio Perez. The Mexican seemed all at sea during a long run on the second morning, regularly locking up and running off track. But, really, that was it for the reigning constructors’ champion squad. On the final evening of the three-day event, Perez topped the test with a series of one-lap performance runs.

Behind, Aston Martin emerged as the dark horse. An eye-catching late long run even had some forecasting the green team to be bothering Mercedes in the pecking order behind the two leading squads from 2022. That actually turned out to an underestimate.

It was soon to be revealed that the 2023 grid was shaped very differently, and this had much to do with Ferrari and Mercedes persevering with the design paths they’d employed to less success than that of Red Bull the year before. Testing, Leclerc said, had shown that Ferrari was “struggling a little bit more in the corners”, after it had headed Red Bull on the cornering-speed front in 2022. Ominous.

Ferrari falters as Aston surges

The engine electrics issue that had knocked out Leclerc from a certain third place in the Bahrain opener then had a knock-on impact for round two in Jeddah. The Monegasque needed his control electronics unit replacing for the second time in a week ahead of the Saudi Arabian race. This meant Leclerc was penalised from qualifying second – appearing yet again very fast, but fragile – to start 12th. He’d actually been beaten to pole by Perez, fastest in Jeddah qualifying for the second year running. But this was no dominant performance, as Verstappen was absent from the pole fight thanks to a driveshaft issue in Q2.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Ferrari's expected challenge to Red Bull faltered at the season opener when Leclerc 's control electronics unit failed

In the race, Perez got off to a second poor start in a row (he’d lost in Bahrain largely thanks to falling behind Leclerc off the line), while Alonso shot forward and led the early laps. The Aston Martin was soon overcome by Perez’s straightline advantage, and was also at the forefront in an early-season rules saga.

In Bahrain, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon had been penalised for lining up too far over in his grid box. In Jeddah, Alonso was guilty of the same thing. So, in Australia, the FIA trialled a central ‘guide line’ paint marking, but critically widened the grid boxes by 20cm, and this issue did not crop up again.

Alonso kept his third place from Jeddah after Aston successfully argued its case over its pitstop penalty actions, while Verstappen had roared up through the field with relative ease to come home second to Perez. There had been tetchy radio exchanges across the two cars and the Red Bull pitwall over late race pace and fastest lap attempts. But the end result of Perez’s win meant he left Jeddah just one point off the drivers’ standings lead – thanks to Verstappen’s bonus point.

"It’s only when you’ve had a sample of two or three and you’ve gone to a couple of circuits that have been more troublesome, certainly for us the previous year, like Melbourne for example, that suddenly you’re thinking, 'OK, no, this is really together'" Christian Horner

“At the moment,” said a contented Perez, “I am feeling very comfortable with the car.”

Verstappen dashes Perez hopes of a title fight

“Certainly, coming out of Bahrain, we felt, ‘We’ve got a really good package here’,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner would later tell us of the early stages of 2023. “But it’s only when you’ve had a sample of two or three and you’ve gone to a couple of circuits that have been more troublesome, certainly for us the previous year, like Melbourne for example, that suddenly you’re thinking, ‘OK, no, this is really together.’”

That was exactly how Verstappen’s squad felt once he’d triumphed in round three in Australia, where his car’s straightline speed edge helped him power back past the Mercedes pair that had muscled ahead on the first lap (the first red flag actually got Verstappen back ahead of unlucky early leader Russell).

That race ended in chaos following two more red flag periods. Perez, who had slid out on his first Q1 lap thanks to his brake balance moving unexpectedly, avoided being caught up in the late third standing start crashfest, his rise to fifth place from a pitlane start coming thanks to the Red Bull’s potent DRS advantage.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Perez's endured a tough Australia before bouncing back in Baku to give hopes of a title fight

Red Bull’s two drivers exchanged scruffy weekend performances next time out in Baku, where Leclerc bagged a pair of poles for the season’s first sprint weekend but wasn’t a victory contender in either race. In the first, Verstappen tangled with Russell, partly thanks to the Mercedes driver’s resolve at Turn 2, and was furious about the sidepod damage that ensued, leading to an unedifying exchange in parc ferme.

Then in the GP, Verstappen led Perez past Leclerc before unfortunate pitstop timing around the safety car meant their positions were effectively reversed. And try as he might, Verstappen couldn’t find a way by, a late Perez wallstrike actually making his car “somehow pick up a bit of front end”.

Verstappen's Baku steering wheel tweaks gain a critical long-term edge

Behind, Verstappen was making deliberate alterations to his steering wheel brake bias, differential and engine braking settings to try to improve his car’s balance. He would later credit this with putting him in “a good rhythm”, since it meant he knew what starting set-up positions to select on these ‘tools’ to recapture that feeling for the opening laps of subsequent weekends.

Verstappen then immediately brought what he felt was a clear set-up gain to bear in the following Miami round. There, Perez started on pole, after Verstappen’s mistake on his first Q3 run was compounded by Leclerc crashing, meaning no one else could improve. But by lap 15 of that contest, it was clear that Verstappen was in victory contention as he had another serene run from a lowly starting spot, this time ninth.

“I was also quite careful in my way moving back forwards, because it was a lot about just collecting points,” Verstappen would say of his various 2023 comeback drives.

Horner reckoned that Perez’s Miami defeat was “a big psychological blow for him”, and that the confidence from those Saudi and Baku wins had “started to disintegrate” by the time F1 headed back to Europe.

This run of races should have started with the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola, but horrendous flooding killing 15 people and displacing over 50,000 others meant the race was cancelled. F1, which had dithered in uncannily similar circumstances over the 2020 Melbourne race at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, was praised for its swift decision-making in calling off what would have been the sixth of 23 planned rounds.

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Alonso came closest to stopping the early season Red Bull domination in Monaco

The championship headed onto Monaco, where McLaren ran a livery tweak homage to the team’s ‘Triple Crown’ successes. But the real intrigue in the Principality came via Perez and Alonso.

First Perez crashed, “caught by surprise, just getting that rear out of shape” at Ste Devote in Q1, which meant Red Bull’s rivals got a nifty look at the RB19’s complex underside as the wreckage was craned away. He therefore started last and eventually finished a twice-lapped 16th after various clashes in the pack.

Verstappen won yet again, but needed what Horner called a “final sector that was something that you don’t witness very often” to pip Alonso to the critical pole position, effectively sealing victory a day earlier than normal. But that sixth Red Bull win of 2023 might have gone begging anyway had Aston not erred in putting Alonso onto medium tyres just as rain was intensifying late on in the race.

Wolff declared the update package to be merely “not good” rather than the “awful” experienced there in 2022, but in Spain Mercedes’ form was transformed

“It’s better than I could have ever imagined, for sure,” Verstappen said after beating Sebastian Vettel’s record 38 wins for Red Bull.

Ferrari and Mercedes redesigns steal focus

Mercedes, said team boss Toto Wolff, had realised back in Bahrain that the W14 wasn’t “going to be competitive eventually”. Lewis Hamilton had felt “immediately that it wasn’t a championship-winning car” when he first sampled it at Mercedes’ pre-testing shakedown. But, unlike Ferrari, Mercedes publicly confirmed that it would make big design changes to adopt Red Bull’s downwash sidepod concept after the Bahrain race.

This was slated to arrive at Imola, but obviously had to be pushed back to Monaco. Wolff declared the update package to be merely “not good” rather than the “awful” experienced there in 2022, but in Spain Mercedes’ form was transformed.

It was not Red Bull-toppling – Verstappen comfortably won again – but it was better. Hamilton ended up second, while Russell made an even more impressive rise than Perez from their 11th and 12th-place starting spots to take third ahead of the second Red Bull driver, who was by this stage 53 points back in the standings.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

In-season upgrades and redesigns began to take effect at Ferrari and Mercedes

Perez was rueing another poor qualifying showing – as was Leclerc. The Ferrari driver had been knocked out in Q1 and blamed his aggressive driving style working against him on the sensitive tyres, mixed with drying conditions. This was a factor that he said would also hamper him in Canada, before he got on top of it to be able to inherit pole at Spa with Verstappen’s penalty. Russell’s Barcelona starting spot was down to a Mercedes miscommunication regarding the run plans he and Hamilton were executing, leading them to clash on the long Barcelona pitstraight.

At this race, Ferrari revealed that it too had been working to adopt the downwash sidepod principle. This was something of a surprise after team boss Fred Vasseur had said after the Australian GP that his squad had ruled out “a B-car”. But even with the changes, Sainz struggled badly after challenging Verstappen at the first corner, thanks to Ferrari’s ongoing woe with in-race tyre wear – another factor from 2022 that carried over into the new season.

Perez’s slump drags on…

Verstappen gave Red Bull it’s 100th GP triumph in Canada. But Perez could only rise to sixth after he again underwhelmed in the tricky, changing conditions in qualifying. There followed two more Q2 exits in Austria and Britain, and then Perez could only manage to qualify ninth in Hungary after messing up sector one on his last Q3 effort.

He blamed this poor streak on “how I was setting up the car”, and not understanding “which direction I need to go when I get issues”. But it all left him needing to recover up the order time and again, and meant he arrived in Belgium on the eve of the summer break with a 110-point deficit to his team-mate and his title hopes all but over.

Perez had at least shown good fight in attacking Verstappen early in the wet Austrian sprint race, their battle so fierce that Verstappen swore over the team radio before they smoothed things out ahead of facing the media.

Perez did finish second at Spa, but this was again another crushing blow. Verstappen had started sixth after a gearbox change penalty but, by the end, and around an almighty save at Eau Rouge during a mid-race sprinkling of rain, he had put 22 seconds over Perez on what is still one of F1’s most challenging tracks. The points gap was up to 125.

…as Aston’s starts and McLaren’s ends

Mercedes’ Spanish GP form had not lasted, and it had become another theme of 2023 that no one other than Red Bull was able to maintain a consistent challenge for the podium positions.

Photo by: Erik Junius

Perez's form deserted him as Verstappen began his record-breaking wins run

Aston and Alonso were second again in June’s Canadian GP, where Russell’s crash while chasing the podium places early on ended his very strong early season run. Indeed, it really took until his third place in the Abu Dhabi finale before Russell looked so composed again, albeit his Qatar race had been undone by Hamilton’s mistake at the start.

Montreal proved to be a key moment in Aston’s season. The team had introduced floor and sidepod changes that it later felt were “not the right choice”, according to team principal Mike Krack. And it was around this time that Aston insiders admitted it had made changes in response to the FIA’s early flexi-wing probing, although it wasn’t accused of doing anything illegal.

Next time out in Austria, Ferrari scored only its second podium of the season (following Leclerc’s third place in Baku). Leclerc was second at the Red Bull Ring, boosted by a pitstop under the virtual safety car, but looking confident with Ferrari’s front wing and front floor upgrade, and therefore tyre wear too. This also led to strong race pace from Leclerc at Spa, but by now McLaren had suddenly surged into position to bother Red Bull.

More than these odd operational issues, Mercedes was lacking against McLaren on the high-downforce tracks

The reasons behind this were twofold. First, the orange team’s comprehensive Austrian GP update in July transformed its pace potential and season. Plus, Silverstone and the Hungaroring featured little of the slow-speed stuff the MCL60 detested. Lando Norris even briefly led his home race before Verstappen powered past to win the sixth of a record-breaking 10-race run.

Mercedes was also inconsistent and surprisingly fragile in one key area. Hamilton scored an impressive pole in Hungary but, at the same race, Russell said he and Mercedes “made a big cock-up” by putting him out in Q1 traffic. Then, next time out at Spa, the pair got in each other’s way in sprint qualifying thanks to Mercedes misjudging its cars’ on-track positions.

But, more than these odd operational issues, Mercedes was lacking against McLaren on the high-downforce tracks. History suggested that Perez would also struggle at such venues compared to Verstappen, making life easier for the Dutchman.

Sainz’s purple patch ends Red Bull’s run

On the return from the summer break at Zandvoort, Verstappen won a dry-wet-dry-wet thriller at Zandvoort, where Alonso’s adaptability was key to Aston getting back on the podium for the first time in five GPs. Perez, meanwhile, spun, hit the pitlane wall and got caught speeding in the pits.

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

McLaren's resurgence created a new challenger at the front over the summer but nobody could put up a fight to Verstappen

But there was another eye-catching performance in the pack behind. This was Sainz’s battling run to fifth, which at the time he rated as “one of my best drives of the season”. The Spaniard followed this up with a sensational Monza pole ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc with something Ferrari had been working on, and explained its poor cornering speed in Bahrain.

This centred around a bid to cut overall drag with differing wing approaches. In Italy this was combined with an even slenderer rear wing that Ferrari senior performance engineer Jock Clear described as “bespoke” for Monza’s straights. Sainz led the early stages of Ferrari’s home race, but Red Bull’s slightly bigger rear wing (still its smallest) meant Verstappen could enjoy strong speed in Monza’s few high-speed corners, to stay in DRS range and also keep his medium tyres alive.

He eventually squeaked ahead and went on take that 10th straight win, with Perez following him up to second from a fifth-place starting spot. Leclerc threw everything at beating his team-mate to the final podium spot but was rebuffed.

Vasseur said that Sainz’s focus on rapid pace “from lap one in FP1” had boosted him at Zandvoort and Monza, and it would do so again when he took pole in Singapore. Here, Red Bull’s streak was finally cracked, that winning-all-the-races question answered.

The bumpy surface and the benefits from riding kerbs on the slow-speed Marina Bay turns was a combination that thwarted the RB19. Red Bull compounded its struggles with mistakes on floor and ride height, and Verstappen and Perez could qualify only 11th and 13th, and race to fifth and eighth.

Up front, Leclerc sacrificed his strategy to aid Sainz. Once Leclerc had been sent tumbling during the pitstops under the safety car, Sainz controlled the pace ahead of Russell. When Norris got up to second, Sainz cannily gave the McLaren DRS to protect himself against the Mercedes pair, now charging on medium tyres.

“I want to thank everyone in Ferrari for making this huge effort to turn around and manage to win this season,” Sainz said before receiving his second F1 winner’s trophy.

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Sainz denied Red Bull a clean sweep of wins in 2023 with his Singapore stunner

Rule sagas don’t hurt Red Bull this time

Ahead of Singapore, the FIA revealed that the 2022 cost cap had been met by all 10 teams. So there was no repeat of the saga that left Red Bull facing a $7million fine plus a 10% year-long reduction in aerodynamic testing for breaching the 2021 cost cap.

Verstappen reckoned Red Bull was therefore “a bit more limited” on car development through 2023. But the other intrigue through this period came from the two technical directives that finally came into force for Singapore, clamping down on flexi wings and floors. Was this the real reason for Red Bull’s sudden slump?

Horner bombastically declared that “it’s not changed a single component on our car”, then the Suzuka round revealed that the RB19’s gap to the rest – at some points during the year, such as in Canada, this was reduced when Red Bull struggled to hit the best tyre operating windows – was back to its general huge margin.

With stint lengths mandated in the GP thanks to the tyre concerns, a predictable three-stop affair played out. Verstappen won again, after the two Mercedes collided at Turn 1 and McLaren asked Norris to hold back from attacking Piastri

Verstappen was so good he beat off a brief threat from Norris by 19s. Perez retired twice, so he could serve a penalty for biffing Kevin Magnussen a week on from doing likewise to Alex Albon.

Verstappen crowned early again

F1 next made its return to the newly resurfaced and upgraded Qatar circuit. After the opening day of running, however, it was discovered that the Pirelli tyres couldn’t stand repeated blows from the track’s new pyramid-shaped kerbs, thanks to the cars hitting such high speeds at the long-standing MotoGP venue.

Verstappen sealed the 2023 title in the sprint race that weekend after Perez was eliminated in a three-way crash with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg, while Oscar Piastri won an entertaining contest from pole. Red Bull, wary of soaking its pitbox surface the evening before the GP, had to take its energy-drink-soaked celebratory pictures away from its garage.

With stint lengths mandated in the GP thanks to the tyre concerns, a predictable three-stop affair played out. Verstappen won again, after the two Mercedes collided at Turn 1 and McLaren asked Norris to hold back from attacking Piastri. The Woking team completed the podium at a track where Norris believed it had its best chance to win all year.

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Verstappen sealed his third world title in the Qatar sprint race

That left five dead rubbers, all of which Verstappen nevertheless scooped up. But he was tested in all of them bar Mexico, where he had to pass the Ferraris at Turn 1 before Perez crashed out, and in the Abu Dhabi finale, where Leclerc had to be resisted three times during the opening lap.

At Austin, Hamilton (later excluded) surged thanks to a Mercedes floor upgrade on a day when Verstappen grappled with a brake problem, but was pleased that Red Bull had finally made progress on its year-long start inconsistencies, while in Brazil Norris mounted a surprise attack at the restart after a red flag.

But it was F1’s Las Vegas return that had Verstappen tested the most. Leclerc lost a likely win when Russell’s clash with the world champion, who was penalised and running down in the pack for having the polesitting Ferrari off at Turn 1, meant a race-changing safety car. Verstappen battled back and thrillingly got ahead of Leclerc and Perez, who lost second on the final lap to a driver who was leading Ferrari again in the wake of its Suzuka floor update, which gave Leclerc the oversteer balance he loves.

Ahead of a brutally long trip to Abu Dhabi a week later, where the seeds of early off-season political tension were sown, F1 reflected on how the entertaining Vegas race had saved the championship’s blushes at an event where the track breaking up eventually led to spectators being kicked out on the first day and a lawsuit launched.

“Today was fun – that’s the only thing I want to say about it,” Verstappen concluded.

His tirades against the off-track elements of the penultimate race were Verstappen’s most vocal statements across a year where he also raged against the sprint race idea and how that might one day impact his participation at the pinnacle of motor racing.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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