2023 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi — Results & aftermath

Verstappen caps historic season with easy victory in Abu Dhabi; wins 19 out of 22 races in 2023; first driver to lead 1000 laps; Leclerc P2 but Russell’s elevation to third after Perez penalty plus Hamilton’s P9 finish earn Mercedes second in Constructors’

Red Bull’s supreme ace Max Verstappen ended his historically dominant 2023 campaign in Abu Dhabi the way he started it way back in early March in Bahrain — with a commanding and effortless win. Under the bright and colorful lights of the Yas Marina Circuit, Verstappen cruised from pole to the win in Sunday’s final Grand Prix of the year, with no other car and driver able to challenge the pace of the RB19 in his hands. Having already won his third consecutive title on a Sprint Saturday in Qatar six races ago, the flying Dutchman nevertheless put his foot down to storm his way to a remarkable 19 victories from 22 Grand Prix run this season. Only his teammate Sergio Perez, with two early season wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Singapore, were able to claim any other top steps on the podium this year. If all that’s not enough of a fitting symbol of his absolute dominance, Verstappen became the first driver in Formula 1 to lead 1000 total laps in a single season. Truly, superlatives get worn thin when describing the amazing year Max and Red Bull have had in 2023, and it will go down as one of the greatest by any team or driver in the sport’s history. It is certainly in the conversation with Lewis Hamilton’s glory days at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, Jim Clark at Lotus, Jackie Stewart at Terrell and Sebastian Vettel at this very same Red Bull team.

With the top spot on the podium essentially conceded once Verstappen nabbed pole for the race on Saturday, the real dramas took place behind the lead Red Bull. Chief among those was the battle between Ferrari and Mercedes for second place in the all-important Constructors’ standings. With Charles Leclerc qualifying his Prancing Horse in P2 but teammate Carlos Sainz stuck down in P16 after a disastrous quali, Ferrari still held a slim advantage on paper over Mercedes, since George Russell was starting from P4 and Hamilton further down in P11. But numerous factors worked against the famed Scuderia from Maranello on Sunday night, not least of which their own strategy call for Sainz to run an extra long second stint on a second consecutive set of Hard Pirelli tires while hoping for some sort of Safety Car. But, as they say, hope is not a strategy, and the race stayed green throughout.

So, while Lecerc ran an excellent race to maintain a fairly comfortable P2 going into the final laps, Sainz was doomed to make his mandatory stop for a different tire compound on Lap 56 of this 58-lap contest, dropping him to eighteenth and therefore out of the points. Leclerc was so cozy in P2, in fact, that he conspired to give that position to the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez, knowing that the Mexican veteran had received a 5-second time penalty for bumping McLaren’s Lando Norris off the road on an attempted overtake on Lap 47. Leclerc’s thinking was that Perez would cede P2 back to him with that penalty at the end of the race but hopefully the Red Bull would be able to pull out enough time on the fourth place car of George Russell to keep the Briton’s Mercedes off the podium and allow Ferrari to pass Mercedes in the team points. But it didn’t quite work out because Perez not able to pull enough of a gap over Russell after Leclerc let him through on the last lap. With Perez demoted to P4 and Russell promoted to P3 when the penalty was factored in, as well as Hamilton scoring to points in P9 afar a scrappy day versus Sainz’s zero point efforts, Mercedes eked out a three-point final advantage over Ferrari on the season.

McLaren also finished their campaign strong, even if they were never quick enough for a podium here at Yas Marina. A week after a rather dismal outing at the brand new Las Vegas Street Circuit, the papaya-clad duo of Lando Norris and impressive rookie Oscar Piastri came home P5 and P6 respectively, sealing the team’s fourth place in the Constructors’ points. Considering that the team were really nowhere after the first eight races, ending up fourth is quite the accomplishment and the engineers and personnel who implemented the major upgrades that allowed McLaren to compete with the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari on fairly even terms deserve a ton of credit. Fernando Alonso wrapped up his best season in F1 since his salad days in 2012 with a solid P7 finish and a very respectable fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. Teammate Lance Stroll also finished on a high note, scoring a point in P10 here after a nice late season surge, and even though Aston faded badly after their fast start and was overtaken by McLaren’s resurgence, the team was still miles ahead of where they had been in recent years and finished a mega-valuable P5 in the Constructors’.

Special mention should also be made of Yuki Tsunoda’s outstanding effort on the evening for AlphaTauri. The colorful young Japanese driver ran a long run tire strategy that saw him leading in the middle of the race when others made their stops before cycling back a bit and finally coming to the checkers in P7. It wasn’t quite enough to allow AlphaTauri to pass Williams in the points when all was said and done but it was a gutsy effort and a nice homage to long time team principle Franz Tost, who is stepping down from that position after an 18-year run.

Top 10 finishers of the Abu Dhabi GP:

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

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The final Drivers’ Standings are here.

The final Constructor’s’ Standings are here.

That a wrap for Formula 1 in 2023 — the next race will be next year in Bahrain on the very first weekend in March. The trailing teams will be working franticly over the not-very-long winter break to somehow close the gap to Red Bull’s supremacy. Let’s hope they succeed so that Verstappen has more competition for his potential fourth consecutive title next season. Enjoy your winters and look forward to seeing you again in 2024!