2022 was a dominant Formula 1 season for Red Bull. They secured their first Constructors’ Championship since 2013, breaking an eight-year streak for Mercedes. Max Verstappen, thanks to 15 wins, locked up his second-straight Drivers’ title. Teammate Sergio Pérez, who scored a pair of wins and seven P2s on the season, finished in third place in the Drivers’ Championship.
If you thought that was good, their 2023 season was in another stratosphere.
Red Bull won all but one grand prix a season ago, lapping the field en route to their second-straight Constructors’ title. Verstappen was absolutely dominant, as he won all but three grands prix, breaking a record set back in 1952 by the legendary Alberto Ascari for the best winning percentage in a single season. Pérez again won a pair of races, and powered to a P2 in the Drivers’ standings, his best finish in his F1 career.
Is it even possible to improve on what they did a season ago?
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Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
2023 highlight: Every. Single. Week.
Pick a week, any week, and it was arguably a season highlight for Red Bull.
When you win all but one grand prix over the course of an F1 season, the above sentence is the result.
But if forced to pick one moment that stands out, it might very well be qualifying in Monaco.
Qualifying in Monaco is the ballgame, given the difficulties associated with overtaking in the race itself. The twisting Monte Carlo streets means passing comes at a premium, and if you want to win, you better start up front.
After Pérez crashed out of Q1 — more on that in a moment — Red Bull’s hopes of winning in Monaco rested on the shoulders of Verstappen. He advanced out of Q1 with the fastest time in the first session, and was again fastest in Q2.
But Q3 was a different story. Verstappen’s first push lap in Q3 was far from perfect, and when the dust settled after the first set of runs it was Fernando Alonso top the timing sheets, with Verstappen down in fifth. Verstappen was able to improve on his position on the second set of push laps, and was sitting in P2.
However, each driver still had one more push lap remaining.
A frenzied drive to the finish began, delivering one of the more memorable moments from the entire F1 season. Esteban Ocon put in a banger of a lap, putting himself on provisional pole with the seconds ticking away. Alonso followed with a strong lap of his own, and for a moment the Aston Martin was on pole position.
But Verstappen had a final lap for the ages, putting the RB19 up to — and at moments into — the barriers to extract every possible fraction of a second. When it was all said and done, he had put the RB19 on pole, his first pole position in Monaco:
You can ride onboard with Verstappen for the entire lap here.
“You need to go all out and risk it all,” said Verstappen after qualifying. “My first sector wasn’t ideal in my final lap. I think Turn 1 was a bit cautious. But then I knew that I was behind so the last sector I just gave it everything. I clipped a few barriers, but of course very happy to be on pole here for the first time.”
Qualifying at Monaco might be the moment Verstappen was tested the most in 2023.
And of course, he delivered.
2023 lowlight: A summer of qualifying discontent for Sergio Pérez
If there was one difficult stretch for Red Bull last season, it was the dismal qualifying stretch for Pérez that began in Monaco at the end of May, and did not come to a conclusion until the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.
Over that stretch and in five different grands prix (Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, and Great Britain) Pérez failed to get the RB19, the year’s dominant package, into Q3.
There were a few different reasons. In Monaco — where Pérez was viewed as a favorite given his prowess on the streets — he crashed out at the opening St. Devote corner in Q1. In Barcelona he went wide at Turn 5 and into the gravel, crashing out of Q2. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Pérez got caught on the track with the wrong tires during rainy conditions, and could not get out of Q2.
Austria might have been the toughest qualifying session for Pérez. That weekend was dominated by “track limits,” with a number of drivers seeing lap times deleted both in qualifying, and in the race itself. Pérez was one of those drivers, as every lap he posted in Q2 was deleted. He ended up starting the race in P15.
Then at Silverstone, Pérez briefly topped the timing sheets in Q1, but then was passed by almost everyone else, and did not advance to Q2.
However, Pérez was still able to maximize his results in many of these races. While he finished 16th in Monaco, he managed to bounce back in the other four races, finishing fourth in Spain, sixth in Canada, third in Austria and then sixth at Silverstone. But this tough stretch opened the door to questions about Pérez’s future with the team, and even Verstappen chimed in, noting that the strength of the RB19 meant that Q3 was a prerequisite. “I don’t know why things went wrong today, but of course, with our car, you have to get into Q3,” Verstappen said after qualifying at the British Grand Prix.
Pérez halted the slide at the Hungaroring, qualifying 9th. But that stretch became a major talking point last season, and has laid the marker for continued doubts about his future with the team.
Outlook for 2024
Given that it is Red Bull and they were dominant a season ago, podiums, wins, and championships are the expectations.
However, they are the hunted, and all nine other teams are trying everything they can to not just keep pace with Red Bull but overtake them on the track, and in the standings. And in what may become a major storyline this season, how will the RB20 compare to its predecessor? That question reached a fever pitch when the team unveiled their 2024 challenger last Friday, leading many to wonder if the team was moving towards a Mercedes-inspired sidepod configuration, perhaps even with some “zeropods” in their future.
Could Adrian Newey, considered to be the greatest engineer in F1 history, truly make zeropods work at Red Bull?
We will learn more about the RB20 over the course of this week, but it will be fascinating to see their 2024 challenger debut in Bahrain.
But the bottom line is this: Another Constructors’ championship is the clear goal for the team, as is another Drivers’ title for Verstappen. And as we saw last year, Verstappen might just be good enough to win the Constructors’ for Red Bull on his own.
Person under the most pressure to perform in 2024: Sergio Pérez
When you are the team at the top, there is pressure everywhere.
There is pressure on Team Principal Christian Horner, to make sure this team is dominant once again. (There is also the added pressure of the ongoing internal investigation into his alleged “inappropriate” conduct, which may or may not be resolved in the coming days).
There is pressure on Newey to strike goal again with the RB20, especially if the team is indeed moving towards a zeropod design.
There is pressure on Verstappen to follow up what was one of the sport’s most dominant seasons.
But ultimately, the person at Red Bull facing the most pressure is Pérez. With his contract up at the end of the season, there is every expectation that he is driving this year to keep his job. In the minds of many, including Horner, the brief window at the start of the season where it looked like Pérez could indeed challenge Verstappen for a title kicked off his tough summer qualifying stretch, with the added pressure perhaps getting to the driver.
How will he hold up given that his job truly seems on the line?
