Red Bull Clinches 2023 Formula 1 Constructor's Championship
Max Verstappen has won today's Japanese Grand Prix, clinching the 2023 Formula 1 constructor's championship for Red Bull Racing. The title is won with six full races remaining in the 2023 season.
The title is no surprise. Red Bull entered the 2023 season as heavy favorites after a dominant 2022, an expectation they backed up by winning 14 consecutive races. Both the team and driver Max Verstappen (ten straight wins) had reset their respective all-time records for consecutive wins before that streak was broken at Singapore last weekend. With Verstappen's win today, the team has now won 15 of 16 grands prix.
While Verstappen did not win the title, he will likely do so in Qatar two weeks from now. That title will be his third. The first came with a controversy that, like the 1989 championship so famously decided in a crash here at Suzuka, is not going to fade any time soon. The second and third have come in undeniable fashion, with Verstappen effectively unchallenged for what have now been two entire seasons.
The battles for second in the driver's and constructor's championship are much closer and still raging. In the driver's standings, Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez holds a narrow lead over a surging Lewis Hamilton and cooling Fernando Alonso. On the constructor's side, Mercedes and Ferrari are locked in a duel between teams that seem to have something close to equal pace on most race weekends. The second-place finisher in both categories will be at risk of finishing with less than half of the points of the champion.
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