There has never been a Formula 1 season as one-sided as 2023.
Red Bull Racing’s sixth constructors championship was won comfortably, with Milton Keynes the first team to win 21 races in a season and end a campaign with a 95.5 per cent victory record.
The team’s 14 consecutive wins, from Bahrain to Italy this year, is a record-long single-season streak.
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That sublime supremacy was paired with Max Verstappen, who cruised to an easy title defence and third championship. No driver, not even teammate Sergio Pérez, was a match for the Dutchman.
On the whole this season was — let’s put it politely — straightforward. Red Bull Racing and Verstappen were in a different class for the duration.
But pity not the audience, for whom the sport did put on some genuinely great races. Verstappen did have to work for at least some of his wins, and Carlos Sainz’s victory in Singapore was made all the sweeter for having come spectacularly against the run of play.
It’s important too to recognise sporting greatness when you see it, even if it isn’t pretty.
Pity instead the many drivers performing at the top of their games but forced to take home scraps only.
Just behind the serene Verstappen we witnessed a titanic five-driver battle between Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin to be best of the rest — or, as Toto Wolff occasionally described it through the year, Formula 2.
So what if Red Bull Racing really were in a separate class to the other nine teams?
To help imagine this fictional racing category, Fox Sports has recalculated both the drivers and constructors championships as though Red Bull Racing were in a separate category, much like the class divisions in the World Endurance Championship.
This imagined category — we’ll call it Formula B — will used the same points system as Formula 1, including fastest laps and sprint races. The only difference is that for the first time this season first place is genuinely up for grabs.
The result paints a fascinating picture of what would have been a truly great championship season.
Verstappen wins 19th race in record year | 01:52
Formula B drivers championship
1. Lewis Hamilton: 331 points
2. Fernando Alonso: 314 points
3. Charles Leclerc: 289 points
4. Lando Norris: 287 points
5. Carlos Sainz: 283 points
6. George Russell: 248 points
7. Oscar Piastri: 145 points
8. Lance Stroll: 131 points
9. Pierre Gasly: 107 points
10. Esteban Ocon: 102 points
11. Alexander Albon: 65 points
12. Yuki Tsunoda: 47 points
13. Valtteri Bottas: 29 points
14. Nico Hülkenberg: 20 points
15. Zhou Guanyu: 18 points
16. Daniel Ricciardo: 12 points
17. Kevin Magnussen: 12 points
18. Liam Lawson: 9 points
19. Logan Sargeant: 9 points
20. Nyck de Vries: 0 points
So what was the story of the 2023 Formula B championship?
‘The stewards are a joke man!’ | 02:36
THE 2023 FORMULA B CHAMPIONSHIP
Fernando Alonso cruises in the opening half
This hypothetical championship starts with Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin stunning the sport with two victories in quick succession in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
The team’s closest challenger at first appears to be Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc taking three poles from the first four grands prix. But an engine failure from the lead of the opening race deals the Monegasque an early blow. Worse is the SF-23’s race pace, which leaves it lagging in the points with only one win in the first four months of the season.
Alonso loses only one other race in the opening six races — to Lewis Hamilton in Australia — to power to an ominous 40-point lead after winning the Monaco Grand Prix.
For reference, Max Verstappen led Sergio Pérez by 39 points and Alonso by 51 points at the same time this season. In the Formula B parallel universe we would’ve been talking about Alonso’s seemingly inevitable march towards his long-awaited third championship.
But Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are hanging in there. There Briton wins in Spain and finishes second in Canada, and from there until the mid-season break he’s the more consistent driver, finishing three times in front of the Spaniard and collecting three second places to Alonso’s two thirds.
When the sport adjourns for its mid-year recess, Alonso leads Hamilton by just 18 points, with the title fight wide open.
Lewis Hamilton seizes on Aston Martin’s lost momentum
Alonso gets the year back underway in the best possible way, winning in the Netherlands with Hamilton in fourth.
He wouldn’t have known it, but that would be his last victory for the campaign.
Worse, Aston Martin is about to enter a long stretch in the competitive wilderness.
After his Dutch win in August, Alonso won’t step back onto the podium until the São Paulo Grand Prix in November. On the way he’ll rack up two DNFs. His highest finish will be fifth in Qatar.
Meanwhile Hamilton goes on an unspectacular but super-consistent run with a streak of fourths and a podium.
The contrasting fortunes have them tied on points on the grid at the Qatar Grand Prix, Hamilton with all the momentum.
But then disaster strikes over the next two races.
First Hamilton crashes himself out of the Qatar Grand Prix attempting to pass teammate George Russell for the lead off the line. Alonso finishes fifth — behind first-time grand prix winner Oscar Piastri — to receive his gift of a renewed title lead.
Then the Briton is sensationally disqualified from a dominant victory at the United States Grand Prix for plank wear, keeping him and Alonso closely matched at the top of the table.
It’s not until Mexico that he’s able to break clear, winning from pole on an afternoon that Alonso retires with collision damage.
But then Aston Martin’s form slump finally breaks in Brazil, when an Alonso podium with Hamilton,
With just the final double-header of Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi to go, Hamilton leads Alonso by 17 points.
But they’re not alone.
Kostecki crowned driver’s driver of 2023 | 00:54
Four drivers in contention
While Hamilton and Alonso battled their waxing and waning form, McLaren and Ferrari rose significantly in the final phase of the season.
As the sport arrives in the unknown of Las Vegas, four drivers are still in title contention.
Lando Norris is in sizzling form. The Briton has been off the podium just once since the Italian Grand Prix, including three race victories. From looking like an also-ran in the first half of the season, he’s now only 43 points adrift and carrying all the momentum into the finale as the protagonists struggle.
Carlos Sainz is hanging on too. His failure to start in Qatar with fuel pressure problems dealt him a serious blow, though, and he’s in only mathematical contention at 44 points off.
But their momentum is halted in Las Vegas, with an early Norris crash and the Sainz engine penalty relating to the infamous exploding water valve cover knocking both out of the title race — despite Hamilton and Alonso wallowing to fifth and seventh.
Arriving in Abu Dhabi, the leaders are split by 21 points, Hamilton in the lead.
Alonso qualifies ahead of Hamilton, in sixth and ninth respectively.
The Spaniard needs a miracle, and for a time it looks like he might get one, with Hamilton careering into Pierre Gasly in a botched passing attempt that leaves him with some damage.
But Alonso’s race pace isn’t a match for the Ferrari or McLaren drivers. He finishes fifth with Hamilton in seventh — not enough.
Hamilton defeats old foe Alonso to win his eighth title by 17 points at the end of a thrilling and unpredictable season.
What a classic it could have been.
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WHAT’S EVERYONE ELSE DOING?
Six drivers add themselves to the 2023 winners list in this Formula B hypothetical: Hamilton, Alonso, Leclerc, Norris, Sainz and, for the first time, Piastri.
Interesting is that Hamilton wins just three grands prix on his championship journey. Alonso claims twice as many victories, with six, but still falls short.
Hamilton’s meagre victory tally is what left the Silver Arrows vulnerable to a late Ferrari charge, with the Italian team returning an admirable seven wins.
Leclerc’s storming finish to the season, with victories in Belgium, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, plus Carlos Sainz’s wins Italy in Singapore, propelled the Scuderia into unlikely championship contention in the final rounds.
Had Sainz had a cleaner weekend in Yas Marina, where he failed to score, it almost certainly would have been enough for Ferrari’s first piece of silverware since 2008.
Formula B constructors championship
1. Mercedes: 579 points
2. Ferrari: 572 points
3. Aston Martin: 445 points
4. McLaren: 432 points
5. Alpine: 209 points
6. Williams: 74 points
7. AlphaTauri: 68 points
8. Alfa Romeo: 47 points
9. Haas: 32 points
Further down, and in this hypothetical McLaren falls just short of catching Aston Martin, in this case for third. The team’s seemingly unstoppable momentum, with four wins in five rounds up to Brazil, was halted by the weird conditions of Las Vegas and a so-so race in Abu Dhabi.
Piastri, however, would be a grand prix winner rather than just a sprint winner — which would have relieved an irritating statistical anomaly.
The bottom four places are unchanged, with AlphaTauri running out of time to catch Williams, while Haas would still be stuck at the bottom of the table.
Kostecki cruises with Title locked up | 01:14
WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
Of course all the above is purely fantasy — the thrilling championship we could have had if only Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen had not consistently operated at an unbeatably high level all season.
But it’s not entirely without use.
Consider, for example, the heightened contrast between Hamilton and George Russell. The former would have claimed the title with only three wins and an otherwise forcefully consistent campaign. Russell would have had just seven podiums to show for his season and would have ended 83 points adrift.
Likewise Lance Stroll — the Canadian would have picked up three podiums but no wins and actually would’ve ended up almost 200 points adrift of his title-contending teammate.
Further, we can see more clearly in this scenario the massive late gains made by Ferrari and McLaren — they would have been enough to make Leclerc, Sainz and Norris title contenders in the final rounds of the season. The Scuderia almost pinched the title.
In real life they were sometimes able to push Verstappen for victory, but never really hard enough to reach for it.
While the step up to Red Bull Racing in the real championship is large, the progress of these teams in our Formula B hypothetical underlines the notion that Ferrari and McLaren are the constructors most likely to bridge that gap next year. Their work rate is undeniable and has paid big dividends over their midfield rivals.
Mercedes and Aston Martin, on the other hand, wallowed. Even with Red Bull Racing out of the equation, neither team would have been able to win a race in the last three months of the campaign in this Formula B example.
It’s a worrying decline in the case of Aston Martin, while it’s a reminder that Mercedes never really got a handle on this year’s car.
They might’ve battled for the title of best of the rest, but they’ll need to lift to a much higher level if either wants the real thing in 2024.