Oracle Red Bull Racing

The Mid-Point

The first part of 2023 has been a wild ride – here’s some of our standout moments.

Formula

One’s

standard

insult

mathematics,

we’ve

reached

the

mid-season

mark

2023:

races

down,

ten

go,

and

departing

for

its

summer

break.

The

last

five

months

have

been

special:

grands

prix,

victories,

three

out

three

Sprint

victories,

nine

out

poles,

eight

fastest

lap

points,

seven

other

podium

finishes.

any

standards,

it’s

been

golden

period

–

but

far

from

relaxing

into

success,

the

intensity

ratchets

up:

times

these

don’t

come

along

often;

the

run

will

end

some

point,

and

no-one

wants

responsible

for

that

happening.

So, two weeks away from the pressure cooker of competition allows everyone to unwind a little, before turning it up to 11 again when we come back at Zandvoort. But before then, here's some of our standout moments from 2023 – Part One.

New

York

Launch

Party

In recent years we’ve not been big on launches, generally preferring to skip the hullabaloo and simply roll the new car out into the pit-lane shortly before the start of winter testing – but not this year. The RB19 first met the world at 9am EST on February 3rd – that’s 2pm Milton Keynes Standard Time, but our launch was taking place in New York given we were also unveiling our 2026 power unit partnership with Ford.

We had a new USA Roadtrip feature, taking the car from Manhattan, Nevada to Manhattan, New York, via the Las Vegas Strip and the Circuit of the Americas, before the grand unveil of the new car. It gained a few more whistles and bells by the time we got to Bahrain three weeks later for pre-season testing but the year was off-and-running.

Bahrain

–

Max

Wins,

Checo

You don’t know. You never know. However good the numbers look in simulation; whatever the feedback from testing, regardless of performance the previous season, until the chequered flag is waved to end the first race, you never know quite what you have. Bahrain has been a bit of a banana-skin for us in previous years but 2023 got off to the best start possible.

Max was on pole a tenth ahead of Checo as they locked out the front row, and there they stayed, between them leading every lap of the race, coming home 17 seconds ahead of the competition. Amid the celebration there’s a tingle of relief that the hard work has paid off, that the numbers weren’t wrong… but also an element of caution because, after all, it’s just one race…

A Beauty In Bahrain

Azerbaijan

–

Checo

the

double

Checo loves racing in Baku. He’s scored more points than anyone else at this track arriving in Azerbaijan having had a victory and a second place for us, and two third places for Force India. It’s tough to improve on that record but he managed it, taking two victories on the first Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. The Sprint got a revamp for this year, with Saturday’s action being self-contained, the Sprint preceded by a new Shootout qualifying format.

Checo Delight In Baku

Checo qualified on the front row for the Sprint, ahead of Max and behind the polesitter Charles Leclerc. While Max was tussling with George Russell, Checo tracked Leclerc and took the lead midway through the race, never looking back. For the grand prix itself the order was switched up, with Max in front of Checo, but still behind Leclerc. Max took the lead after a careful opening, and pitted from the lead… at the worst possible moment, as the Safety Car came out almost simultaneously. It was all the advantage Checo needed. Having passed Leclerc on track, he dived into the pits, came out with his lead intact, and kept his foot in all the way to the chequered flag.

Bulls Triumph In Baku

Miami

–

Miami

Twice

Max goes into the summer break with a healthy lead in the Drivers’ Championship off the back of eight straight victories, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. He started 15th in Jeddah after a driveshaft problem curtailed his running in Q2, while in Miami, at the beginning of his current streak, he started ninth after a red flag late in qualifying prevented him getting the final, crucial lap on the board. It didn’t matter though: Max was absolutely flying in Miami and scythed through the field to take a popular win in front of another bumper crowd, doubling down on his victory at 2022’s inaugural Miami race.

We're So Ready For Miami! 🌴

Touched Down In Miami

Ka-Chow 📸

Bringing The Heat To Miami

The RB19 Never Looked So Good

Race Ready For Miami

Tropic Ready

Canadian

–

100

wins!

This was a big one for us, our 100th grand prix victory, coming 14 years, one month and 30 days after the first. We’re the fifth team to record the ton, and the youngest to the tune of nearly three decades. Max won the race from pole with a comfortable margin – but the drama had come on Saturday when changeable conditions during qualifying, combined with the unforgiving nature of the walls around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve made the session highly charged. Max negotiated it all with ease. In the hubbub post-race, a couple more milestones were noted quietly by the team. It was a 200th Grand Prix victory for Adrian, while for Max it was win #41, equalling the record of Ayrton Senna.

Hungarian

and

Belgian

–

Breaking

Records

More than one person in our garage admits to having a poster of McLaren’s MP4/4 on their bedroom wall as a youngster, so to shatter that car’s 35 year-old record for consecutive victories was a very nice way to go into the summer break. In 1988, the MP4/4 won the first 11 races of the season. Our run started at the final race of 2022 in Abu Dhabi.

Record Breakers

Winning in Hungary was our 12th consecutive victory, taking the outright record. But of course we didn’t stop there – our one-two finish that followed a week later in Belgium clinched the record for consecutive wins in-season. While the former was our 250th F1 podium, the latter puts the RB19 on a pedestal all of its own, and certainly in the running to be the GOAT.

Belgian Delight

Reliability in the modern era is much stronger, but on the other hand, the competition in 2023 is also much more fierce. Perhaps one to ponder over the summer break with a glass of something cold in your hand…