Six things we learned from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

A very simple stat tells the story here: victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday was Red Bull’s 21st out of 22 races this season, giving it a staggering win record of 95.45 per cent. That’s a smidge higher than McLaren managed in 1988 when the MP4/4 hit 15/16 at the hands of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Not much fun for us, but that’s an incredible achievement.

For both McLaren and Red Bull it was a case of one that got away. For the former it was the Italian Grand Prix, which Senna had been leading with two laps to go when he collided with a backmarker; for the latter it was the Singapore GP that provided the RB19’s only off-day.

The hunt for a perfect season goes on…

As well as contributing 19 of those 21 victories, Verstappen’s iron grip over F1 in 2023 was such that he’d led a grand total of 1,003 laps come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi; more than three-quarters of all the racing laps for the entire year. Crumbs.

And not only that, the Dutchman and his team reportedly planned his strategy around making sure he spent as long as possible in the lead of the race, knowing that breaking into four figures was a possibility before the lights went out.

Fancy that, a team so dominant that it’s finding new and inventive ways to rub its rivals’ faces in its supremacy.

Pretty much the only jeopardy on offer in Abu Dhabi was the ultra-tight race for second in the constructors’ championship, with Mercedes leading Ferrari by just four points heading into the grand prix.

Important for prize money reasons - about $10 million being the difference between the positions - although the consolation for missing out on the cash would be more wind tunnel time in 2024. F1 giveth and F1 taketh away.

Charles Leclerc and George Russell were on top form but their teammates, er, weren’t, with Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton qualifying 16th and 11th respectively. Neither were able to make much progress in the race (Ferrari ended up waiting in vain for a safety car to bail out Sainz), which meant it was all on Leclerc and Russell in the closing laps.

The balance tipped in Mercedes’ favour when Sergio Perez was handed a five-second penalty for colliding with Lando Norris: that meant George Russell could afford to see the Red Bull driver zip past him on the road without losing his podium spot and the 15 precious points that came with it.

But that wasn’t the end of the drama. Realising he needed to roll the dice, Leclerc smartly let Perez through hoping he would get far enough up the road to keep Russell in fourth post-penalty but not so far that he himself lost P2. The gambit nearly worked, but Russell crossed the line 3.9s behind Perez to ensure Mercedes beat Ferrari by 409 points to 406. Close!

We should be talking more about Yuki Tsunoda. The return, then injury, then recovery of Daniel Ricciardo - combined with his impressive P7 in Mexico - has meant all of the attention at AlphaTauri has been placed on the Aussie and not on the Japanese driver.

We need to fix that: Tsunoda outscored his more experienced teammate by 14 points to six in the final five races of 2023, and his P8 in Abu Dhabi - fending off Lewis Hamilton on the very last lap - was possibly his strongest performance of the entire season.

That late charge meant the team fell just shy of reeling in Williams in the battle of the backmarkers, ending up three points shy in the race for P7 in the constructors’ standings. Alfa Romeo finished ninth, while Haas came last having scored just 12 points all year.

And not just because the car looked even more orange in Abu Dhabi. Lando Norris was in the hunt for pole until a mistake on his final flying lap cost him dearly in qualifying, but that only goes to show just how far the team has come after a miserable start to the season with a car that had the aerodynamic properties of a brick for the first few races.

Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri - whose rookie year highlight must’ve been sprint race victory in Qatar - finished a solid P5 and P6 in the season finale, and it looks like there’s bags more to come from both drivers in 2024. Here’s hopin’.

On which note, let’s end with a bitter dose of reality courtesy of seven-time champ Lewis Hamilton. The 38-year-old has signed on for two more seasons with Mercedes, but he doesn’t sound convinced that he’ll be fighting for titles in that time.

Fresh from finishing ninth to cap off another winless year, he pointed out that Red Bull had taken the chequered flag by 18 seconds with a car they haven’t done any development on “since August or July”. So imagine how much time they’ve spent prepping the RB20 for next year…

Even Toto Wolff - who has been bullish about the reset being done to Mercedes’ aerodynamic philosophy for next season - admitted catching Red Bull in one winter would be like climbing Mount Everest.

Can anyone challenge the Red Bull/Verstappen powerhouse in 2024?