With the 2023 F1 Championship done and dusted, Max Verstappen took home the trophy quite conveniently. His teammate, Sergio Perez could not have outscored the Dutch driver even if we doubled his points. However, Perez was able to win another Championship.
Sergio Perez finished the 2023 season with the most overtakes. This can be seen in 2 ways. One is the obvious where Sergio Perez drove hard to overtake several drivers in the race. The other way to look at it is that Sergio Perez was not able to get a good position during qualifying and had to fight his way back, which is what happened.
Here’s how the F1 ‘overtaking’ standings look like
With Sergio Perez on top of the standings, his teammate, Max Verstappen was down at 5th position. This is actually a surprise given that Max was leading every race for most of the season. However, he did manage to get 68 overtakes this year.
The 2023 season had a total of 1,195 overtakes. This is the more than any other season in F1. There were a number of aspects that helped the drivers accomplish this number. One is ovbviously the DRS. Since the 2011 season, DRS has helped the drivers a lot to overtake the driver in front. This has become one of the best onventions by the FIA to make racing more exciting.
S.no | Driver | Overtakes |
---|---|---|
1 | Sergio Perez | 95 |
2 | George Russell | 81 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | 73 |
4 | Oscar Piastri | 69 |
5 | Max Verstappen | 68 |
6 | Lando Norris | 68 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | 67 |
8 | Pierre Gasly | 63 |
9 | Alex Albon | 63 |
10 | Lance Stroll | 62 |
11 | Kevin Magnussen | 60 |
12 | Esteban Ocon | 59 |
13 | Guanyu Zhou | 57 |
14 | Yuki Tsunoda | 54 |
15 | Carlos Sainz | 52 |
16 | Charles Leclerc | 49 |
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | 49 |
18 | Logan Sargeant | 33 |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | 27 |
20 | Nyck de Vries | 18 |
21 | Liam Lawson | 15 |
22 | Daniel Ricciardo | 13 |
Another reason for the number of overtakes is the regulation change that took place in 2022. After the 2021 season, the FIA implenmented a number of changes to the rules and regulations. These had significant effect in aerodynamics. Basically it made it easier for a car to drive close behind another car without being too affected by the dirty air coming out of the car in front.
Another aspect that helped the drivers reach this record was the total number of races. F1 has never hosted a season with 22 races. They originally planned for 24 races, but had to settle for 22 as the Chinese Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was cancelled. Next season, F1 has planned a total of 24 races. If this stands, we could see the most overtakes record broken once again.
Who previously held the record for most overtakes in a season?
Before Sergio Perez overtook 95 cars this season, the record for most overtakes in a season was held by Max Verstappen. He did it in 2016 when he was just 18 years old. He finished the season with 78 overtakes. This was the most by any drive in F1 history.
⭐️ MAX VERSTAPPEN’S RECORD BREAKING 2023 ⭐️
Most wins: 19
Most podiums: 21
Most points: 575
Biggest winning margin: 290 points
Most laps led: 1,003
Highest % laps led: 75.7
Most wins from pole: 12
Most consecutive wins: 10
Most hat-tricks (pole, win, fastest lap): 6#F1— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2023
This was only Max’s sophomore year. What made this record even impressive was the fact that Max was promoted to Red Bull only after the first 4 races. Out of the 21 races that were held in 2016, MAx drove 4 of them with Toro Rosso and the rest of the 17 with Red Bull Racing. So it was clear from the beginnign thatt Max Verstappen was going to be Champion. However, no one could have imagined that he will dominate the way he did during the 2023 season.
This season, Max Verstappen broke several records. This includes most races won in a season, most laps led in a season, and much more. While fans found this dominance boring at the time, looking back at it now, it si incredible what Max and Red Bull were able to accomplish during the 2023 season. We will be lucky to witness another season similar to the one in 2023.
Do you think Max Verstappen will win another Championship in 2024? Post your answers in the comments section below.