Red Bull Motorsports
F1
F1 to 10: What really happened at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Max Verstappen signed off on a record-setting year in style, winning at Yas Marina for a 19th victory of an F1 campaign where Oracle Red Bull Racing nearly swept the season.
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1. Abu Dhabi in exactly 74 words*
Max Verstappen signed off on a dominant 2023 Formula One season in style, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s three-time world champion winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the fourth year running and taking a 19th victory in 22 races this season. The victory was his 54th, elevating him to third on the all-time wins list. Team-mate Sergio Pérez came across the line in second, but a five-second post-race penalty dropped him to fourth place.
* 2023 is the 74th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Abu Dhabi GP in six pics
Signing off a dominant 2023 in style
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Abu Dhabi had a new podium, but a familiar face on the top step
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen "didn't expect" pole after struggling with balance in practice
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Max made the most of every inch of track to take a 12th pole of 2023
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Once more, with feeling
Verstappen had his hands full with Leclerc's Ferrari on the first lap
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Abu Dhabi has been and will always be a special Grand Prix for Verstappen after the Dutchman took the first of his hat-trick of titles at the billion-dollar venue in 2021 with a last-lap overtake of Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton in one of the most dramatic season finales in the sport’s history.
Verstappen’s dominance this year has meant similar drama has been in short supply, his relentless search for excellence continuing even as he ticked off one record after another. Abu Dhabi was a case in point; on his back foot after struggling with handling issues in practice, Verstappen duly put the RB19 on pole and then, after repelling a feisty Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) on Lap 1, ran his own race to win by 17.993s.
In all, Verstappen won 17 of the last 18 races of the season and has now won from his past 16 pole positions, ending an unprecedented year on a seven-race winning streak.
Pérez, meanwhile, looked to have the pace to make it seven 1-2 finishes for the team this season but was hit with a penalty for contact with McLaren’s Lando Norris on Lap 47 as he charged towards the front from ninth on the grid.
It was a shame for the Mexican, who showed prodigious pace in the middle part of the race after being stuck in the pack in the opening exchanges, left buried on the grid after his final Q3 lap on Saturday was scrubbed for a breach of track limits.
While Abu Dhabi has been a tough circuit for Pérez to crack – he’s had one podium there (2021) in 13 attempts – 2023 was his most successful season yet, finishing a career-best second in the drivers’ championship at age 33.
4. So close, so far for Tsunoda
Tsunoda gave it his all, but just fell short of sixth
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Scuderia AlphaTauri left no stone unturned in its quest to overhaul Williams for seventh place in the constructors’ championship – the team brought a brand-new floor for the AT04 for one final push – but fell just short after Yuki Tsunoda’s bold one-stop plan saw him finish eighth, the team needing sixth to overhaul the British squad.
Tsunoda, at the site of his best F1 finish (fourth in 2021), was superb all weekend, qualifying a career-best sixth and leading for five laps – the first time he’s led a race in his career – but ran out of tyre life late to score four points, ending the season in 14th overall with 17 points.
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s weekend was more problematic. The Australian was disappointed after qualifying just 15th on Saturday and having to make an unscheduled pit stop early in Sunday’s race after a tear-off strip from another driver’s helmet visor became stuck in his brakes. Ricciardo ended up in 11th place.
The race was the last in charge for Franz Tost, the 67-year-old Austrian who has been team principal at what was originally Scuderia Toro Rosso when it came into F1 back in 2006.
5. The number you need to know
95.4: In percentage terms, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s winning rate this season. With 21 victories from 22 Grands Prix, the team’s season surpasses McLaren in 1988 (15 wins from 16 races, 93.8 percent) as the most successful in F1 history.
6. The word from the paddock
It was an incredible season. It was a bit emotional on the in-lap the last time I was sitting in this car. That has given me a lot. It will be hard to do something similar again, but we definitely enjoyed this year
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
575
-
2
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
285
-290
3
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
234
-341
4
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
206
-369
5
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
206
-369
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
860
-
2
Mercedes
409
-451
3
Ferrari
406
-454
4
McLaren
302
-558
5
Aston Martin
280
-580
8. Away from the track
You heard about the race in Las Vegas, right? No, not that one… this one was part of the (Un)serious Race Series, where F1 cars were swapped for hovercrafts, and grippy tarmac switched for a slippery desert.
Watch what happens when Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo get together in the Nevada desert to pilot high-powered racing hovercrafts through three space-inspired challenges in scenery straight from a sci-movie. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of laughs, some high-level competition, and sand that’ll be found for months by one of our quick quartet…
8 min
F1 drivers vs hovercraft
Watch F1 drivers go head-to-head in sci-fi hovercraft racing, deep in the desert outside Las Vegas.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 1, 2024 (Bahrain), February 29-March 2
Circuit name/location: Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir
Length/laps: 5.412km, 57 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 19, 2004
Most successful driver: Lewis Hamilton (five wins)
Most successful team: Ferrari (seven wins)
2023 podium: 1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing), 3rd: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Two-time World Champion Pedro Acosta
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
Pedro Acosta is that guy. You know, the athlete that comes along once in a while and shows signs of potential greatness from day one and then keeps raising the bar in a way only the truly special do. The Spaniard is only 19, but he’s already a two-time champion in MotoGP™, winning the entry-level Moto3 title as a rookie in 2021 and then annexing the intermediate-class Moto2 crown this year.
It's more than just stats for the teenage sensation, too; anyone who wins their second world championship race in a 28-bike field while starting from pit lane, as Acosta did in Doha in Moto3 in 2021, clearly has a flair for the dramatic.
How will he fare when he steps up to MotoGP’s premier class in 2024 with GasGas as the most hyped rookie since Marc Márquez? That’s all for the future; here are six things you need to know about him right now.
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