Perhaps it was the sheer scale of his achievement that finally hit home for Max Verstappen as he stood victorious on the podium for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to close out the 2023 Formula One season. The Dutchman smiled on the top step but his features betrayed a sense that he was aware it may never be better than this.
His win at the Yas Marina circuit was indicative of the absolute authority with which he has dominated this season. By the flag he had more than 17 seconds on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was second. Leclerc gave a valiant drive but, with George Russell in third, one that was not enough to prevent Mercedes beating the Scuderia to second in the constructors’ championship.
Verstappen, of course, was not involved in such petty squabbling after a season of such success and almost flawless execution. He was untouchable from pole to flag, the margins such that he might have got out, had a cup of coffee, a go on the Space Invaders machine and still had time to spare. The 26-year-old already had his third world championship sealed in Qatar. Abu Dhabi was but the most emphatic full stop as he and his Red Bull team completed what stands as the most dominant season in F1 history.
Yet even in the very final throes of this odyssey Verstappen was typically focused on claiming another record. He told his team to leave him out longer from a pit stop as he sought to become the first driver to lead for 1,000 laps in a season. With relentless single-mindedness then, that now belongs to him too.
The numbers take something to grasp, just as they make difficult reading for his rivals, who will be pleased to put this behind them in the hope that next year they may have more to do than watch Verstappen disappear into the middle distance at every race, and it has been almost literally every race.
With the Abu Dhabi win he finishes with 19 from 22, surpassing his own tally of 15 last year and far beyond the previous record of 13 by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. This is a level of dominance not seen before, a run which includes 10 consecutive victories in a demonstration of immense control.
Even the occasions when he had to come through the field presented only minor inconvenience to the Dutchman whose record, alongside those wins, includes two second places and one fifth. How that particular damned spot must rankle on an otherwise blot-free copybook.
What stands out is how short but intense this period has been that elevates him into the very top echelon. With 34 victories in the past two years this, his 54th, surpasses Vettel’s career tally of 53, making the Dutchman the third most successful driver by wins in F1 history, behind only Lewis Hamilton and Schumacher.
Yes, the naysayers will point to his superb car, superior to the rest of the field. Yet his teammate Sergio Pérez was in the same machinery but remained in a different class to Verstappen, who delivered a season of such consistency that it is hard to imagine it being equalled.
The race – as is so often the case at this bland, flat enormodrome in the desert – was something of a procession but one enlivened by the fight between Mercedes and Ferrari for second in the constructors’ championship that went to the wire.
Through a tense final third, Mercedes did well to hold their place – Russell in particular nerveless in doing enough as Pérez, who finished fourth, charged at the death. Russell had to hold third to seal the place.
Pérez had passed the British driver on lap 54 but had to then make up five seconds on him for a penalty imposed after the Mexican had clashed with McLaren’s Lando Norris. Pérez duly made more than three seconds and Leclerc let him past in a last-gasp effort to help the Mexican but Russell held the place as the laps counted down, doubtless amid sighs of relief at Mercedes, who will welcome the additional $10m in prize money it represents.
Norris and Oscar Piastri were in fifth and sixth for McLaren, enough to maintain their lead over Aston Martin and claim fourth in the constructors’ championship.
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Red Bull, too, finish with numbers that are unparalleled. They have won 21 races, beating the Mercedes record of 19 from 21 in 2016. They might have even pulled off a flawless season but for being off the pace in Singapore where Carlos Sainz took the flag.
Verstappen has said already that addressing that one weakness is a goal for the team next season – ominous intent indeed for a driver who has been all but untouchable in 2023.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were in seventh and 10th for Aston Martin, Yuki Tsunoda in eighth for AlphaTauri and Hamilton ninth for Mercedes.
