Red Bull has claimed the 2023 Formula 1 constructors’ championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen’s victory in today’s race ensures that they can no longer be overtaken by their opponents in the rankings.
Red Bull won the title for the sixth time since joining the series in 2005. After dominating the 2023 championship, they ended the title fight with six races remaining.
This was before a team won a title. McLaren and Ferrari won the constructors’ title with five races remaining, in 1988 and 2004 respectively.
Team leader Christian Horner said: “For us, this has been the most incredible year. “It is all a testament to the memories of these people and all the men and women at the Milton Keynes factory.
“For Red Bull, for all our partners, it’s all about the incredible effort of everyone that contributes to achieving the results we did and of course Max is just one class away.” level again at the moment. So today was an incredible performance.
Only 5 teams in F1 history have won more titles than Red Bull. Another would see them match Lotus’ number seven.
It was Red Bull’s most notable success to date. So far, they have won 15 of the 16 major awards. Verstappen, who could win the drivers’ title in the next race, has 13 wins.
“Great weekend and to win here is great,” Verstappen said. “I think the car performed very well on all compounds, but of course the most important thing was to win the hearts of the manufacturers.
So I’m very proud of everyone who works on the track and in the factory. We are having an incredible year and I am so proud of everyone.
As soon as pre-season testing ended, it was clear that Red Bull had had another year of dominance. They scored three doubles in the first four races, giving them a 93-point lead over Baku.
At that time, Verstappen had reached a level that teammate Sergio Perez could not match. The reigning world champion set a new record for most consecutive Grand Prix wins with 10.
It ended last week in Singapore, where Carlos Sainz Jnr won at Marina Bay to end Red Bull’s record of 15 consecutive wins since last November.
Red Bull failed to finish on the podium in Singapore due to difficulties with set-up and track characteristics, but the team immediately found its form in Japan. Verstappen was fastest in all three practice sessions, before taking pole position by more than half a second to take his 48th career victory.