F1 Focus: The 2023 season added a new name to the GOAT debate
In this week's column, in the aftermath of the season finale in Abu Dhabi, conclusions are drawn from a 2023 campaign that most will be glad to put behind them.
Verstappen the Great
At the start of the 2022 campaign, there were whispers that Max Verstappen could go on to be the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time; one year later, those whispers are now shouts.
Yes, he had one of the most dominant cars the sport has ever seen, but the way he drove it was nothing short of remarkable.
Across 23 race weekends, he barely put a foot wrong, dominating the rest of the field like nobody has before. Specifically, he claimed a record tally of wins, podiums and points on his way to his third title, and became the first driver ever to score more than twice as many points as any of his competitors.
He was simply relentless, possessing blistering pace at every circuit and not making major mistakes at any of them, displaying a frightening level of consistency that I for one have never seen before.
In terms of driving alone, he was at a level that I'd say has only been matched in the modern era by the very best seasons from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. I'm not forgetting Sebastian Vettel - I think the Dutchman is better than the German ever was.
It feels all but certain that he'll match Vettel's tally of four titles next season, and with him only 26 years of age, he'll very much have his sights set on Hamilton and Schumacher's record-total of seven. It would take a brave man to bet against him reaching it at the very least.
Life in the old dogs
A few years ago, you would've thought that the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lando Norris would be Verstappen's biggest threats by 2024, but this season has shown that, if anybody is going to bring an end to his reign of terror, it'll be one of his elders.
After being outscored by Russell in their first season as team-mates, Hamilton made it abundantly clear that he's still the top dog at Mercedes this year, getting the better of his compatriot in the vast majority of races. Alonso meanwhile wiped the floor with Lance Stroll at Aston Martin, dominating his intra-team battle more than anyone else.
The two veterans were the two highest-scoring non-Red Bull drivers, finishing ahead of Russell, Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Norris to prove that age is just a number.
Hamilton may be 38 and Alonso 42, but both say they're driving as well as ever and have constantly backed up those claims with their performances. In terms of both outright pace and race craft, they've looked every bit as good as anyone bar perhaps Verstappen.
Whether either could get the better of the Dutchman if given a good enough car is uncertain, but with how well they're driving and the experience of title fights that they possess, they're the two men on the grid that the Red Bull man should fear most.
Red Bull's rivals require major rethinks
Mercedes and Ferrari are the two teams on the grid with more than enough resources to take the fight to Red Bull, but neither came remotely close to doing so this season, allowing their rivals to utterly dominate as they both failed to solve the problems that allowed Verstappen and co to claim both titles in 2022.
Once again, Ferrari built a car that was, on average, the second fastest on the grid, but as has been the case for a long time now, they failed to extract its full potential due to countless strategic errors that cost them countless points and ensured they spent more time fighting Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin than they did challenging Red Bull.
As for the German team, they generally operated well as a team, doing as well as they could with the car they had, but unfortunately for them, it simply wasn't a good car, with Toto Wolff and co failing to give Hamilton and Russell the machinery that their talents deserve for the second year in a row.
Not only did both Ferrari and Mercedes fall further behind Red Bull, but they also allowed Aston Martin and McLaren to close the gap to them by a considerable amount, with the fight for second in the Constructors' Championship becoming a four-horse race.
If the two heavyweights don't buck up their ideas this winter, sorting out their operational issues in Ferrari's case and building a better car in Mercedes', both may well end up sitting below more teams than just the champions this time next year.
That would be disastrous not only for them but for the sport as a whole too. Interest will only decrease as long as Verstappen and Red Bull are dominating, and it's hard to see anyone stopping them if Mercedes and Ferrari can't.
