RaceFans’ complete 2023 season review

13 comments on “RaceFans’ complete 2023 season review”

1. 

   Brell-9W
   31st December 2023, 14:28

   The 2023 season wasn’t that bad. I think we’ve seen some nice storylines like the brilliance of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the renaissance of Fernando Alonso, re-emergence of McLaren, the arrival of Oscar Piastri, surprise cameo from Daniel Ricciardo and even more unexpectedly Liam Lawson. If it was fairly obvious who was going to win the races, the battles for the rest of the top 5 were always shifting and unpredictable. The Formula 2 season was also a thriller; if only Vesti, Doohan and Martins were following Theo Pourchaire and Ayumu Iwasa to Japanese Superformula in 2024 so the battle royale could continue… it’s a shame there’s little enthusiasm for this round of drivers.

   The thing that stood out most for me during the 2023 season is the DRS. This has simply become a crutch with unintended consequences, and at the very least need to be scaled back. If it were difficult to pass in Formula 1 before, now it’s way too easy and takes all element of strategy out of the equation – why gamble on a one-stop strategy if the competition can simply breeze past on the next straight, with fresher tyres – ah, the tyres!

   Also, because the majority of overtakes are done in a DRS zone, we miss seeing the clever drivers finding creative ways to overtake / defend positions, with Fernando Alonso’s defense of third place at the Brazillians Grand Prix being a perfect example of the sort of wheel-to-wheel racing craft that was commonplace one time. Also, the tension of not knowing if someone can get past or not (remember Imola 2005 and 2006 ?) it’s all gone.

   My other gripe is track limits penalties and the other upteen amount of reasons for getting a penalty. Formula One is not ‘football’ and I don’t see the purpose of worrying about a white line when drivers are trying to extract the maximum speed from a racing car through fast corners – it’s the antithesis of the whole point of the sport. Obviously something blatant like cutting chicanes and cutting corners where there are large run off areas is also not in the spirit of racing, but running wide through a fast corner to carry more speed is a skill, and one that was once admired. Long ago, Martin Brundle used to talk about “riding the kerb to extract maximum lap time”, oh how he’s changed his tune… then when they talk about penalties for minimum delta times, maximum delta times and the like, you wonder how many nit pickers and fuss pots they need in the stewards office.

   For the reason’s I’ve mentioned above, I’d rate the 2023 F1 season as a 6.5/10. I think it’s more enjoyable than 2022, 2019, 2018 and 2017, because at least the minor points positions were hard fought, it wasn’t a season where it was the same drivers in the top 8 race after race, and after all we had 11 different drivers from 6 different teams on the podium.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      1st January 2024, 14:10

      I just can’t agree with this season being more enjoyable than any of the 4 seasons you mentioned: 2022 we had a proper battle for the title till the mid point, 2018 and 2017 basically till he end with almost equal cars, 2019 was bad, yes, but ferrari was competitive and should’ve won races far earlier than they did if not for driver mistakes\reliability problems, add red bull in the mix and it was a dominant season for mercedes but you had 2 other teams that could win on merit, nothing to do with 2023.
      1. 

         Robert Henning
         1st January 2024, 18:53

         2022 we had a proper battle for the title till the mid point,

         It was as proper as Vettel’s 2018 fight. It was over once Verstappen won in Imola. Lasted 4 races that title fight. Then only had to wait for Ferrari to Ferrari themselves which they did beautifully.
2. 

   Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
   31st December 2023, 17:14

   TL:DR – happy new year to all of the team and thanks for being the go-to source for Formula 1 news for another year.
3. 

   Zann (@zann)
   31st December 2023, 17:15

   my family has decided women’s football is more interesting than F1 now. Part of it is that the driver who’s dominating is just a boy, who doesn’t do anything else or stand for anything else, he just drives a car very perfectly and that’s all, he’s a robot. Whereas if you watch an interview with, say, Tooney, you have some actual charisma
   1. 

      tielemst
      31st December 2023, 17:37

      Ermm…enjoy the matches?

      Anyway, happy new year to all!
      1. 

         Zann (@zann)
         31st December 2023, 18:18

         yes thank you, happy 2024 to you too. My point is that it’s people we watch performing not robots, so we can identify with them and share the emotions. So yes we watch the football matches and then as the women we know a little do well or badly and are skilful or make mistakes we care and are that much more involved. And it’s the same in F1 when we have the human drivers that are more open with their emotions and just richer as personalities
         1. 

            SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
            31st December 2023, 19:19

            Okay, thanks for letting us know. Have fun on the women’s football websites.
   2. 

      Imre (@f1mre)
      31st December 2023, 20:08

      Verstappen is probably the most outspoken F1 driver on the grid.
      1. 

         Zann (@zann)
         31st December 2023, 22:08

         true, he says what he thinks. He doesn’t like sprint weekends or Vegas and how they behaved with the fans over FP, which was great and admirable. That’s just about F1 tho, it’s not charisma is it and it wasn’t even said sympathetically
   3. 

      Ferdinand
      2nd January 2024, 9:44

      Happy 2024! It’s all down to personal preferences. That’s why we have comments here in the first place. I just happen to find him very outspoken and downright funny in his debunking of the glamour and circus that has grown around what was once a truly enjoyable and pure sport.. Form my perspective a well needed voice. Bit very good to make you own choices. Enjoy!
4. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   31st December 2023, 23:06

   A good compilation article & a happy 2024 to all.
5. 

   BlueChris (@bluechris)
   31st December 2023, 23:36

   Happy new year to all guys and i wish for good health first and happiness.

Comments are closed.