After a long season of pushing boundaries and breaking records, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the last race of the 2023 Formula One season held on Nov. 26.
Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari car.
Formula One is a European centered motorsport with Grand Prix races spanning across many countries. It started in 1950, making 2023 its 74th year.
This year, 10 teams entered two drivers to compete for two different awards. The “World Drivers Championship” (for individual drivers) and the “Constructors Championship” (for the team).
Because this is a dangerous sport with cars reaching 233 miles per hour, there is a governing body called the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Established in 1904, the FIA promotes road safety around the world and serves as a judge across many auto racing events. This creates a level playing field among teams and drivers to make sure everyone is following protocol.
For example, in 2018 they introduced a new part that was mandatory for cars competing called the Halo. The Halo is a curved bar in front of the driver's head to protect it. Because of this, multiple drivers have survived crashes that would have previously killed them.
The development process for this started back in 2016 by the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team despite the team principal's vocal dislike of it.
Moving on to the stats of the 2023 season, Max Verstappen won his third World Drivers Championship with Red Bull and the Losail Circuit on Oct. 8. This same day, McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri won his first Sprint Race.
During this season, Verstappen won 19 out of the 22 races held. The other three being won by his teammate Sergio “Checo” Perez and Ferrari Driver, Carlos Sainz, Jr.
With a whopping total of 860 points between the 2 drivers, Red Bull also won their sixth Constructors Championship. Previous wins being from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2022.
The 2024 season was announced to start on March third only giving the drivers a 97-day break from the last race. A total of 24 races will be held making it the longest F1 calendar yet. In the last 5 years, there was an average of 20 races a season.
As of right now all 10 teams are keeping the same driver lineup for the next season. However, there was a wait to see if Williams’ American rookie driver, Logan Sargent, would get a contract for his sophomore year.
Sargent’s performance this year was less than they’d hoped, having only scored one point the whole season. While his teammate Alex Albon carried most of the weight. His one point was also only obtained because two drivers in the higher positions got disqualified and the Circuit of the America tack in Austin, Texas.
Although there isn’t much change on the grid for the 2024 season, the 2025 season will be met with many different changes. Fourteen out of twenty of the drivers' contracts will be expiring with their teams leaving everything to the imagination for driver pair ups.
Whatever happens, the wait for the race cannot end soon enough.
Photo courtesy of pixabay.com
Comments