The year of records
In a season marked by records, it was inevitable that even the awarding of world titles could bring with it absolute records. The fact that Red Bull and Max Verstappen will win the Constructors’ and Drivers’ championships in 2023 has not been in question for months. The only real variable is ‘when’. The Hasselt champion will have to wait at least until the Japanese Grand Prix on September 24 to be crowned king of Formula 1 for the third consecutive year. The Milton Keynes team, however, could find ourselves celebrating already this weekendin Singapore.
Even for a steamroller like this year’s Red Bull, however, achieving arithmetic triumph in the Asian city-state would require a significant dose of good luck. Currently the Austrian team, reigning world champions, enjoys 310 points ahead of the second-placed team, Mercedes. After Singapore there will still be seven GPs and three Sprint races to run, for one maximum total of 353 points. This means that if Red Bull conquered on the Marina Bay track 43 points more than Mercedes would be arithmetically champion. In fact, in case of finishing on equal points, the team led by Christian Horner would still have won more races.
The double is not enough
To allow the Austrian giant to become champion already on Sunday the two RB19s of Verstappen and Perez will have to finish the race in the first two places. If this situation were to occur e the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell should both be out of the points, then Red Bull would be champions. The only other option is for one of the two Red Bull drivers to take the fastest lap; in this case even a possible tenth place for one of the two W14s would be nullified. However, Mercedes does not fail to score points with at least a 52 Grand Prix car. The last double zero of the silver arrows dates back to the 2021 Azerbaijan GP.
Obviously if Red Bull managed to win the title in Singapore it would be an all-time record. No team in the history of F1 has ever won the championship with seven races remaining. The current record is held in cohabitation by McLaren 1988 and from Ferrari 2004. The team of Senna and Prost, directed by Ron Dennis, won that championship with five GPs to spare in a calendar of just 16 races. The red team of Schumacher, Barrichello, Todt and Brawn instead certified its success in 2004 after the 13th of the 18 scheduled GPs. However, remaining with the most recent ‘cycles’, Mercedes’ record is four races in advance, recorded in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020.
#Red #Bull #reach #Constructors #title #Singapore