Incredibull: A Tale Of Two F1 Championships 🏆🏆Records tumbled, history was made...
01Incredibull 🏆 🏆
The path to ultimate glory – and especially to a title double of Drivers’ and Constructors’ – requires the confluence of all three, plus an enormous effort back at the factory to develop the car, a team-mate bringing crucial points and a ferocious will to win.
In 2023, all of those elements came together at Oracle Red Bull Racing, resulting in a season of staggering success. Records tumbled, history was made, and with a handful of races remaining, both titles were sealed in emphatically rapid succession.
Here’s how the Team delivered from drawing board to grid to flag to take Max to his third crown, and how Max went above and beyond to help the team to its sixth Constructors’ title. Read and watch how they story unfolded this season...
02Chapter One
The 2023 season had just one three-day pre-season test, in Sakhir, a week before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. We were pre-season favourites and, to the outside world, the test reinforced that point of view: quickest in qualifying sims, quickest in race sims, up near the top of the order on mileage. Of course, within the team, no-one puts too much stock in those numbers.
“It was encouraging – but there’s nothing conclusive at a winter test to say you’re going to be good, bad or indifferent once the season starts,” says Paul Monaghan, Chief Engineer . “We can look at our competitors’ cars, try to estimate what they’re doing with engine modes, fuel weights, tyres, and at what time of day they’re doing their runs – but they really are all just estimates. You’re never in a situation to express confidence that you’ve got the fastest car – you go into Race One needing to put the best car that you possibly can on the ground… and keep doing that for Race Two, Race Three, Race Four and so on…”
But a week later, things had changed. The conditions were different and in Friday practice the comfort zone provided by the test evaporated. The Team, though, was prepared.
“The car was difficult to set up and we had a fight to get a balance on it, the wind had swapped round, more sand on the track, whatever goes on. But they team did a good job got the things settled. And yes, we did appear to have a bit in hand, which is a rare privilege.”
When Max and Checo locked out the front row the following week, and then delivered a 1-2 finish, everyone started to unclench a little… but only a little.
Ultimately, this was Checo’s weekend, with the Minister adding a new word, ‘wicked’, to his vocabulary after he sealed a superb first win of the season. But while Checo deservedly took the plaudits, Max’s performance in Jeddah was just as impressive. A driveshaft issue on Saturday relegated the Dutchman to 15th on the grid, but that didn’t deter Max. “Anything is possible at this track,” he said after qualifying. “We have good pace, so for sure we will move forward.” And on Sunday, that’s exactly what he did, picking off rivals to inexorably move towards the front. Armed with the same machinery, Checo was always going to be out of reach, but everyone else? Not a problem. “It was about being calm and overtaking the cars one by one. P2 was always the target.” One win, one second place, in charge of the championship, ahead of his team-mate by a point.
Work on the first upgrade begins before the car has raced, starting the minute after the Race One package has been signed-off. Traditionally, it arrives for the start of the European season… but with F1 not returning to truck-based racing until Round Six, the team decided to take a gamble, fitting the upgrade as soon as it was ready, at Round Four in Azerbaijan. Given this was the season’s first Sprint event, and therefore allowed only one hour of practice, this was a risk.
“We either did it or we didn’t. We chose to do it,“ says Paul. “There’s a leap of faith associated with that, of course, but the clever people that had designed the upgrade were reasonably confident. Our development tools put us in the very privileged position of having more confidence in our research, to say that yes, we were prepared to take the new package to a Sprint race.”
The RB19 sported modified sidepod geometry with bigger radiator inlets, and a more pronounced undercut, plus some fine detailing around the front of the floor. It had an excellent debut with Checo winning both the Sprint and Grand Prix on what must be his favourite circuit by now.
While Checo was undoubtedly the star in Baku, just seven days later in Miami the champion was back to his imperious best – almost. On Saturday at the Hard Rock, he admitted that he’d made life difficult for himself with a mistake in Q3 that left him ninth on the grid. On race day though, Max was simply unstoppable. In just 14 blistering laps after the start he powered through to P2 and then on a different strategy to Checo he relentlessly closed the gap and passed the Mexican on lap 48 to take the lead and ultimately the win. “Saturday was a setback, but today we kept it calm and kept it clean,” said Max. “And yeah, winning a race from P9 is always very satisfying,” said Max afterwards. Satisfaction guaranteed.
If anyone needed more evidence of Max’s exceptional talent, then qualifying in Monaco presented a whole case load of indisputable facts. Going into the final sector of his last lap of Q3, and with pole on the line, Max was almost three tenths of a second adrift of Fernando Alonso, and with just a few hundred metres of the lap remaining, it would be game over for most drivers.
But Max isn’t most drivers and just seven sublime corners later the champion was across the line, eight hundredths of a second clear and on pole for the Monaco Grand Prix. It was a simply breath-taking performance. “My God! I hit the wall a few times!” he said over the radio after taking his third pole of the season. “We had to pull that one out of the bag. Very lovely!” To seal the deal, he then romped to the Monaco race win of his career the following afternoon.
A grand chelem for pole, fastest lap and a lights to flag victory in Spain, plus another masterclass in Montreal took Max’s win total for the season to five, but it was at the following round, in Austria, that Max truly demonstrated what dominance means. Seeking a fourth win at the Team’s home circuit, the Red Bull Ring, Max bossed the weekend from the off. Quickest in the sole practice session, he then beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.048s in Qualifying to take pole position.
On Saturday he took P1 for the season’s second Sprint, half a second clear of Checo and then blew everyone into the weeds in the 24-lap race, finishing a staggering 21 seconds clear of his team-mate. And Max’s pace was equally extraordinary on Sunday. With 24 seconds in hand over Leclerc in the closing stages, Max had time to pit, bolt on a set of soft tyres and scorch his way to the fastest lap. Just relentless.
GALLERY:TheBullsDominateTheRing
Through The Lens: 2023 Austrian Grand Prix
Raise It High© Vladimir Rys
Warm Embrace Between Max And Checo© Vladimir Rys
Team Celebrations© Vladimir Rys
A Win Equals A Red Bull Shower© Vladimir Rys
Saturday Mood© Vladimir Rys
Double Dutch Fist Pump© Vladimir Rys
Slotting In© Vladimir Rys
03Chapter Two
A grand chelem for pole, fastest lap and a lights to flag victory in Spain, plus another masterclass in Montreal took Max’s win total for the season to five, but it was at the following round, in Austria, that Max truly demonstrated what dominance means. Seeking a fourth win at the Team’s home circuit, the Red Bull Ring, Max bossed the weekend from the off. Quickest in the sole practice session, he then beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.048s in Qualifying to take pole position.
On Saturday he took P1 for the season’s second Sprint, half a second clear of Checo and then blew everyone into the weeds in the 24-lap race, finishing a staggering 21 seconds clear of his team-mate. And Max’s pace was equally extraordinary on Sunday. With 24 seconds in hand over Leclerc in the closing stages, Max had time to pit, bolt on a set of soft tyres and scorch his way to the fastest lap. Just relentless.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was officially Round 12 of 2023 but only Race 11, given the cancellation of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Victory for Max was a milestone for the team that will probably go down as the greatest achievement in a season of remarkable feats. Our final major upgrade of the season – more sidepod revisions and a lot of work around the front and rear brake ducts – bought with it a 12th consecutive victory, stretching back to the final round of 2022, breaking the record set by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost for McLaren all the way back in 1988. We would eventually extend that record to 15 consecutive victories.
The nice thing about a consecutive streak is that it accurately reflects a team working well at all levels: design, production, build, trackside operations and drivers. Again, this related back to the advantages inherent in retaining much of the RB18. “There’s a degree of familiarity with the current car being largely a carryover from last year,” says Paul. “It removed the new car nuances, that you often learn as you go: building it over and over again to reveal the intricacies and discovering the best way to put it together. I think that helped the guys in the garage – as did the fact their voices are heard in the design process.”
It wasn't entirely smooth sailing, and there have been scrambles between sessions to replace components, and even a couple of well-documented failures – but not from any inherent weakness in the car. “Little things have cropped up to bite us but, to this point in the season, the car has been pretty reliable,” says Paul. “We’ve dodged a few bullets on the way – but most of our issues have been slow-burning problems that we’ve been able to find contingencies to deal with and minimise the limitations they’ve caused.”
Team records in Hungary were followed a week later by another crushing display at Max’s favourite circuit – Spa Francorchamps. Fastest in Qualifying, quickest in the Sprint Shootout, and effortlessly victorious in the Sprint, Max was in control throughout the weekend. And on Sunday, not even a five-place drop to P6 at the start could stop him. With pace in abundance, Max scythed his way through to P1 in just 17 laps. And with a clear road ahead, the champion simply drove away from the rest of the field to seal victory 22s clear of Checo and more than half a minute ahead of the first non-Red Bull car.
Which has been the toughest race to win in 2023? The drivers might offer different opinions but, from the wider team point of view, the Dutch Grand Prix was a real trial by water and wind. You do expect the weather to play a part at some point over any weekend at Zandvoort – but the torrential rain lashing in off the North Sea made us realise that we’d had it easy for Max’s victories in 2021 and 2022 before he made it three-in-a-row. Practice and Qualifying was the usual Zandvoort litany of red flags and disruptions, but Max still managed to bag pole, though the race that followed was an operational nightmare: with patches of sunshine intermixed with sudden, vicious squalls.
Max stopped six times – including a red flag which had the cars in the pit-lane under the tents for three-quarters of an hour and the crews cold and looking very bedraggled – but each time the radar picture changed, the strategists were able to make good calls, weren’t panicked into going too early and got both cars home in good order. The pit crew also led the way with their pitstops which, despite Zandvoort being an exceptionally difficult pitlane, were exemplary all afternoon.
Max has set the bar on so many levels during his time in F1 but it didn’t seem possible that anyone would stitch together a run to better Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of nine wins on the bounce in the mighty RB9. But the Dutchman did just that in Monza with a spellbinding drive to make it 10 wins in a row from Miami onwards. “Max, that is mighty,” Christian said on the radio as Max crossed the line. “Ten races in a row. You’re on your own now, mate – that’s history!”
10 Of The Finest© Getty Images
We See You And We Thank You© Vladmir Rys
Every team is going to have a disaster weekend at some point in the season. Traditional demands it. Ours (it is to be hoped) came in Singapore – but the Team came back in fine style the following week to clinch the Constructors’ Championship with victory in Japan. From previous experience, Suzuka is a wonderful place to celebrate a title, but it felt doubly-significant to win it at Honda’s home.
“Overall, I think we are blessed to have a car which is good in all its areas,” says Paul Monaghan. “Aerodynamically, we’re good; weight-wise, very good; suspension pretty good – and the engine is phenomenon! I think by the time we emerged from the Azerbaijan- Miami double-header, it became apparent that we had a reasonably good car. Good at all circuits, good in all conditions: hot; cold; elevation; windy. Put it down on the ground and generally it goes! This year, that’s been enough to carry us to the titles with a good portion of the season remaining. We should look back on this very fondly.”
At the apex of a season in which it’s all too easy to run out of superlatives, Max’s march to his third title in a row seemed to arrive almost unheralded – as if it had been sealed long before. But in Qatar, the champion was still tested to the limit as he grabbed hold of crown number three. A matchless first lap in Q3 handed Max his 10th pole of the year, but on Saturday he was forced to settle for third on the grid for the Sprint.
However, P2 in the 19-lap race was enough to put the Dutchman out of reach of his rivals and into territory occupied by some of F1’s true legends – Brabham, Stewart, Lauda, Piquet, Senna – as a three-time F1 champion. And to cap a weekend of exceptional achievement, the following day Max added Grand Prix win number 14 of 2023, powering through some of the hottest and most gruelling conditions ever seen in F1 to take another stunning win.
Fourteen wins, 10 poles, eight fastest laps, two grand chelems (Spain and Qatar) and 433 points. That’s just 21 shy of his 2022 total, but with five races and two Sprints still remaining. It’s shaping up to be one of the greatest seasons in F1 history – and it’s all down to the perfect blend of team, car and driver.
Max Verstappen, You Are A Three Time World Champion© Vladmir Rys
The Details Are On Point© Vladmir Rys
GALLERY:LetTheCelebrationsFlow🍾
Celebrating Our Sixth World Constructors' Championship
Going Full Send In The Garage© Getty Images
Bring It In© Getty Images
Hugs All Day© Getty Images
Let The Red Bull Flow© Getty Images
On your mark, get set, Red Bull© Getty Images
Close Your Eyes And Spray© Getty Images
Family Fun Time© Getty Images
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work© Getty Images
Did Someone Say Celebrate?© Getty Images
The Team Go Full Send© Getty Images
Soaking Up The Celebrations© Getty Images
