Bulls, Stars and Horses — 2023 Mid-Season Review

Okay first of all, hot take time — I actually think that this season is one of the best ones in the recent history. Take out Red Bull out of the equation, and we have a brilliant fight for P2 between an inconsistent Ferrari, an extremely consistent Aston, and a reinvigorated Mercedes. Throw in McLaren as a spoilsport post its upgrades, and we actually have a lot to look forward to in the second half of the season. But enough rambling, lets get to my views on the season so far and what to expect going ahead.

MAX-Attack

Rarely do we see a sportsperson operate at their Max performance (pun intended ;p) on a consistent basis. Verstappen this season has been utterly dominant. His current race average points of 26.2 is actually higher than the maximum points possible in a normal race weekend, i.e. 26 (Click here for a quick guide on F1 points). While this is of course due to the extra points given for sprint races, the fact that Max has won all races (sprint + main), except for 2, is further proof of his domination. While Vettel fans, like yours truly, will be hoping he loses in Netherlands to keep Vettel’s record of 9 consecutive race victories intact, the chances of that happening with Max’s current form seems next to zero.

Aston Surprise

Aston Martin has consistently been in the top 6 this season. Part of it has to do with the ridiculous consistency of one Fernando Alonso, who at the age of 42 is schooling the field. Statistically, Aston’s average top finish this season has been 4.33 compared to 10.05 last year, which clearly shows the great improvement that they have achieved this year, and the consistency with which the team has performed over the season so far.

Inconsistent Ferrari and Reinvigorated Mercedes

Ferrari has been, well, typical Ferrari this season. In a season where they were expected to take the challenge to Red Bull in the first season under the leadership of Fred Vasseur, they have moved backwards. This was primarily due to their tendency to shoot themselves in the foot on various occasions through strategy blunders, pit stop errors, driver errors and reliability woes. Only time will tell if they can actually get their act together in the second half or they will continue to falter.

Mercedes on the other hand have been impressive for me, due to the fact that they shown great practicality and humility by ditching the no-sidepod concept for their car. Few teams would, if any, undergo such a massive design philosophy shift mid-season, especially in the new cost cap era. This has also reaped rewards for them in terms of result. Merc’s average top finish jumped up from 4.2 in the races before Monaco, to 3.8 after that, when they debuted their updated car.

At the moment, it seems as though Aston has dropped back a bit, compared to Mercedes due to lack of upgrades, but the second half seems to be nicely poised for a three way battle between the drivers of Aston, Merc and Ferrari.

McLaren Comeback

McLaren was quite upfront in their expectations for the season, at their car launch — This was not the car that they expected to launch with, and the updated car would come later in the season, which could boost them up the charts. Well, seems like Andrea Stella (Team principal, McLaren) is definitely a fortune teller. Since the upgrades were launched at the Austrian GP, McLaren has had a complete 180 turn of fortunes. Their average top race finish has gone up from 12.12 to 3.75. They have had 3 podiums in 4 race events (2 for Lando and 1 for Piastri in the Belgium Sprint), and are looking very strong on circuits with a large number of Medium and High Speed Corners. With Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Mexico being the only “Slow” tracks in the second half, odds are set well for McLaren to challenge consistently for podiums. This will certainly be enhanced by the fact that teams will now slow down their upgrades, looking to focus their limited resources on the car for next year, rather than this year.

Aging like Fine Wine

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso — the two oldest drivers on the F1 grid, are showing no signs of slowing down. After 12 races, the two drivers are separated by exactly 1 point. Hamilton’s turnaround has coincided with the turnaround for Mercedes. Before Monaco, Alonso was outscoring Hamilton by 3.8 points on an average in each race. After Monaco though, Lewis has turned the tables by outscoring Alonso by 2.57 points each race. Both have been incredibly consistent as well, with Alonso scoring 12.42 points per race and Lewis scoring 12.33 points per race with a variability of only 5.18 and 4.16 points respectively.

The rest of the season is hence poised beautifully for the battle between the two all-time legends.

That’s all from my side in this half time review of the 2023 season. Let me know in the comments which race you are most excited to watch in the rest of the season, and who will win out between Alonso and Hamilton in your view. Until next time, Ciao!