The first half of the F1 2023 season came to an end. Here are the 5 greatest moments so far, from Verstappen’s wins to Hamilton’s record.
While Formula 1 is on their summer break now. It is a good moment to reflect on the first half of the season. So far, after 12 Grand Prix (without the Emilia Romagna GP) Red Bull Racing is leading both championships, with 503 points for the team and 314 for Max Verstappen. In the meantime, here’s the 5 best moments of the first half of the season.
Super Max
At only 25 years old, Max Verstappen is scoring record after record, challenging the biggest names in the history of Formula 1. This year, at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, he matched the total of 41 wins of the legend Ayrton Senna. Which was surpassed by Verstappen after his win in Austria. Now, with his wins in Silverstone, Budapest and Spa, the Dutchman is at 45 victories.
He won 10 out of 12 races on the calendar, 8 of which consecutively and is one podium away from Sebastian Vettel’s record of most consecutive wins in F1, scored in 2013.
Thus, with a gap of 125 points from his teammate Sergio Perez and one perfect race after the other, his third title is almost guaranteed.
…and super Red Bull
Not only Max Verstappen, but also Red Bull Racing seems to be unstoppable.
When the Dutchman doesn’t win, it’s Checo Perez on the highest step of the podium. This means that Red Bull won every single race of F1 2023’s calendar. Moreover, in Belgium the team marked the best start of the season in the Formula One’s history, surpassing the 11 victories of McLaren in 1988 with Senna and Alain Prost.
In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull has 256 points more than Mercedes, who are second in the standings. Aston Martin has only 196 points.
And with a driver like Max Verstappen, the Bulls can think of doing what no one has ever done before: winning every single race of the season.
Lewis Hamilton’s first pole after 19 months
On the Hungaroring, Lewis Hamilton secured his ninth pole position on the same track. Something which no one else has ever done that before.
The British driver already had the F1 record of most poles on the same circuit with his 8 poles in Melbourne, but he shared it with Senna (8 poles in Imola) and Michael Schumacher (8 poles in Suzuka). During the Hungarian GP, Hamilton broke some other records: most first row starts on the same track and most number of pole positions. And he stole them from…himself. The one in Hungary was his 104 pole position in his career, the first one being in Canada in 2007. After him, there is Schumacher with 68 poles and both Senna and Vettel with 65 poles.
The 7-time World Champion also already had the record for the most front row starts on a track, with 11 in Abu Dhabi.
Ferrari 800th podium
At the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was on the podium for the second time this season. His second place at the Red Bull Ring marked the 800th podium for Scuderia Ferrari.
The Italian team has been part of the Formula One circus since the beginning in 1950, and it’s the first team to score this record, behind the Cavallino there is McLaren with 494 podiums and Williams with 313.
The first driver to be on the podium for the Scuderia was Alberto Ascari during the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. Schumacher, as expected, has the highest number of podiums for the team of Maranello, 116 podiums in red. He’s followed by Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel, both at 55. Forth in the list is Kimi Räikkönen who has 52 podiums and Fernando Alonso with 44 podiums completes the Top 5.
The current drivers for the Cavallino Rampante have 25 podiums for Leclerc and 13 for Carlos Sainz.
📻: "Good to be back on the podium" ☺️
And, that's Ferrari's 800th podium too, @Charles_Leclerc 😉#AustrianGP #F1 @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/UFkQErtDvT
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2023
McLaren is reborn
At the beginning of this 2023 F1 season, McLaren was going through a crisis with both of the drivers who struggled to reach the points. Things started to look slightly better in Spain where Lando Norris qualified 3rd and Oscar Piastri 10th. However, the papaya team had to wait until the Austrian Grand Prix to have a solid result with Norris in P4. Slowly, but surely the British team introduced new updates which brought Lando Norris on the podium in Silverstone and Budapest both times in p2. Norris’ podiums were the first back-to-back podiums for McLaren since 2012, when Lewis Hamilton won the American Grand Prix and Jenson Button won in Brazil.
His teammate, Oscar Piastri scored a 4th place in Great Britain and a 5th in Hungary. In Belgium, Piastri was milliseconds away from starting on F1 Sprint pole position. The Australian driver eventually started the Sprint on the first row next to Max Verstappen while Norris started in p5. The 2021 Formula 2 champion also led the Sprint for three laps; he’s the first rookie to lead a race since Esteban Gutierrez during the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. The Australian celebrated his first p2 of the season in the Sprint.
While the race on Sunday didn’t end well for Piastri, who DNF’d after a contact with Sainz in the first turn, and Norris finished in p7, we can expect good things from the McLaren’s during the second half of the F1 2023 season if they keep working in the right direction.
YES, @OSCARPIASTRI. 🙌
P2 and Oscar secures an incredible result in the #F1Sprint at Spa! 🥈 #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/flRDn6XHzt
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 29, 2023
Formula 1 takes a three-week break now. The 2023 Formula 1 season will be back from the 25th of August in Zandvoort for the 2023 Formula 1 Dutch GP.
