26 November, Abu Dhabi, UAE: The season finale, the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP, ended what has been nothing short of a year where Oracle Red Bull Racing have re-written history. The RB19 car, the drivers, the team, the partners – never has there been a season like it.
When the lights went out at the start, Max reacted well from pole to take the lead ahead of Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, while behind them Lando Norris got the jump on George Russell to steal fourth place.
Checo, meanwhile, dropped a place from his P9 grid slot, as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly got past and Lewis Hamilton shot forward from P11 to pass Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg who slid down the order.
However, in getting past Checo, Hamilton had gone off track in Turn 1 and two laps later he offered little resistance as Checo eased past at the start of the lap to retake ninth place.
At the front, after resisting a strong opening-lap challenge from Leclerc, Max quickly broke DRS to the Ferrari and began to pull away, racing to a 1.5-second advantage at the start of lap 7. Norris then made his way past team-mate Piastri to steal third and Russell too moved past the Australian to take P5.
Behind them, Checo was all over the back of Gasly’s Alpine and on lap 12, he closed up to the Frenchman through the chicane and then stole seventh place on the run to Turn 9 under DRS.
Max made his first stop at the end of lap 16 and in a 2.9s halt he made the switch to hard tyres and emerged in P7, behind the long-running, hard-tyre shod Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari responded by pitting Leclerc at the end of the next tour and he was followed in by Checo. Leclerc rejoined three seconds behind Max, while Checo, fitted with hard tyres, came out in P12, behind AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who had made an early stop for hards after getting a visor tear strip caught in his sidepod.
Yuki Tsunoda now led a Grand Prix for the first time in his career. Max quickly made his way past hard-tyre starters Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll and when Tsunoda made his sole stop on lap 22, the Champion returned to P1.
Checo, now in P7, was now closing up to Alonso and on lap 25 the Aston Martin driver lost DRS to Piastri – and that was all the incentive Checo needed.
On the long run to Turn 6 he opened his own wing and breezed past Alonso. With good pace on his fresh hard tyres the Minister of Defence made the same move past Piastri to rise to fifth place just before half distance.
Checo then made his second stop at the end of lap 42, taking on a set of hards for his final stint and Max made his final stop at the end of the following lap and he emerged in the lead, also on hard tyres after a 2.3-second stop.
Checo soon found himself tucked up behind Norris and on lap 47 he attacked into Turn 6. There was contact and as a result Checo was handed a five-second time penalty for causing the collision – a sanction that would have major implications elsewhere in the Constructors’ Championship in the final stages of the race.
Norris was still in Checo’s sights and on the next lap he muscled his way past the McLaren in Turn 6 to take P4, four seconds behind Russell, and on lap 54 Checo powered past Russell to take P3. Now he needed to build a five-second gap to the Briton in just four laps in order to hold on to the podium position.
And with Ferrari battling Mercedes for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship, Leclerc calculated that if he let Checo past there would be a better chance that the Mexican would gap Russell. So, with a lap left Leclerc backed off allowing Checo to close and arrow past.
Checo was flying, lapping almost eight tenths quicker than Russell, but with just a lap remaining he couldn’t make the gap work and though he crossed line in P2, when the five-second penalty was applied he slid back to fourth behind Russell. Leclerc’s gambit had been audacious but despite the Ferrari driver finishing second, Russell’s P3 allied to Lewis Hamilton’s P9 meant that Mercedes secured the Championship runners-up slot, 451 points behind the victorious Bulls.
2023 World Champion, Max Verstappen, said: “It’s been an unforgettable season. It was emotional on the in-lap driving the RB19 for the last time, this car and Team has given me so much. I have to say a big thank you to everyone at Red Bull, we’ve had an incredible year. It will be hard to replicate a year like this but we always want to do better and to improve so let’s see what we can do next year. In the meantime, I think the whole Team and everyone in the paddock needs a rest and to spend some time with friends and family. It’s been a simply lovely year.”
Reflecting on the race, Sergio Pérez said, “Overall, we had a good race today. I think I could have maybe stretched it to a one stop, it’s something to look at and review. It probably would have been possible, but we will never know! My honest opinion is it was just a racing incident with Lando but unfortunately, the stewards didn’t agree with that and I got the penalty and lost second place in the final race of the season.
“I have learnt this season to never give up, we have had some tough times, ups and downs but it only matters where you finish when the season ends here. I am happy with the whole Team, they have done a tremendous job and we deserved a lot more today and at times this season. We have had the best season in our history and so much credit to Max, he has been outstanding. Next year we have another chance and we go for it.”
Having finished the season as it started, in winning fashion, Christian Horner said, “Well that brings the curtain down on a year that can only be described as incredible. This car is going to go down in the history books as a very, very special car. To have won 21 races out of the 22 is an achievement we never thought possible. What a year, not just for those you see week in and week out at track, but more than anything, all the people behind the scenes back in the factory across the whole business. All the support staff made this happen and played their role in making, delivering, and operating this car.
“Finally, I would like to thank our partners and fans, who equally played their part in this historic season. Their commitment to the Team has been steadfast throughout the season and we are incredibly grateful for their support.”
An incredible year. Twenty-one team wins from twenty-two races, fourteen pole positions, five Sprint wins. Records for the most wins in a season for Max and for the Team. Records for most consecutive wins, with 15 for the Team and 10 in a row for Max.