As good as Max Verstappen has been, his Red Bull team deserve the greater plaudits.
Whisper it, but the F1 teams really prefer the world constructors’ championship to the world drivers’ championship.
25th September 2023, 03:08
David Tremayne
The Straits Times

There is reflected glory in the latter, but to many it is purely reflective of the man at the wheel, whereas the former acknowledges just what a huge team effort is required to field two cars for around 23 races in a season, and to keep developing them to the nth degree within the newly imposed US$135 million (S$184 million) limitations of the current cost cap.

Max Verstappen’s brutal return to utter dominance after the strange glitch in Singapore the previous week was more than sufficient to wrap up a sixth WCC for Red Bull Honda. Details of precise payments to teams for their final positions therein are a close-guarded secret, but suffice it to say they are made on a percentage basis so most of the money from the 2023 kitty will be headed to Milton Keynes.

There is a cost too, however: a sliding scale reduction in the time the most successful teams are allowed to spend on crucial aerodynamic research. It’s designed to level the playing field, though if you look at what Red Bull have achieved this year – 15 wins from the 16 races – compared with 2022, when it was also the most successful, the restriction on Adrian Newey’s fun time appears to have had little ill effect.

‘Adrian Newey’s fun time’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/f...eater-plaudits


‘Golden moment’: The numbers behind Red Bull Racing’s ‘unbelievable’ sixth title
September 25th, 2023 6:00 am
Michael Lamonato
Fox Sports (Australia)

Red Bull Racing has won its sixth constructors championship, embedding itself deeper into the history books as one of Formula 1’s all-time great teams.

Its sextet of titles puts it one short of the iconic Lotus squad of the 1960s and 70s. With two seasons still to run under this set of technical regulations, Mercedes and McLaren’s tallies of eight titles apiece are within reach before rules changes threaten to shake up the order.

Only Williams (nine) and Ferrari (16) are further ahead among championship-winning constructors. “To achieve this sixth constructors championship is beyond our wildest dreams,” team principal Christian Horner said. “Coming into the season, I don’t think we could have dreamt of having a season like this. It’s unbelievable.”

‘Golden moment’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsp...7e9309052ca2ce


Verstappen Undoubtedly ‘the Fastest and the Best’, Says Helmut Marko
September 24, 2023
BaylaSportsF1

Max Verstappen has certainly put to rest any doubts at Suzuka, affirming that the issues in Singapore are now behind him. The Dutch driver was not just seven-tenths ahead of the McLarens during the qualifying rounds; he was nearly a full second quicker than his own Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez. “All I can say is that our cars are equal,” he said when asked about the large gap to Perez.

But Verstappen has completely dispelled any theories that the FIA’s restrictions on movable aerodynamics had adversely impacted Red Bull. “We had a bad weekend,” he said. “Of course then people start saying ‘ah, it’s all because of the technical directives’. I think they can go suck on an egg.”

Arriving in Japan, the 25-year-old was clearly “energised” to counter his detractors, with Red Bull’s team advisor Dr Helmut Marko in agreement: “Max was really highly motivated here and wanted to show it. “He has shown here that he is the fastest and the best,” Marko told ORF. “Everything else is back on track.” For every other driver in the field, Verstappen’s showing is a tough act to follow.

‘Clearly “energised”!’;

https://baylasportsf1.com/verstappen...-helmut-marko/


Christian Horner reveals failed vow ‘fired-up’ Max Verstappen made ahead of Japanese GP
24 Sep 2023 5:00 PM
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed Max Verstappen’s state of mind coming to Japan after a disappointing Singapore weekend. Horner revealed that Verstappen had just fallen shy of the target he’d set himself coming to Suzuka, having vowed to bounce back after his defeat.
“Sometimes the races you lose are the weekends you learn the most at,” Horner said.

“I think that it was a big reminder to everybody that it’s very easy to miss the target. We all left Singapore knowing that, ultimately, the winning run that we had would come to an end but a little frustrated. I played paddle tennis with Max on Wednesday and he was properly fired up! He made it clear, ‘I want to win the race by 20 seconds’.

“In fairness, he came within point seven of a second of achieving that, had it not been for a blue flag at the end there! You could tell, from the very first lap in FP1 that, on the hard tyre, he was 1.8 seconds quicker than the rest of the field on medium or soft tyres at that point.”

‘Win by 20 seconds’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-ve...ristian-horner


In pictures: Red Bull celebrates sixth Constructors' F1 title
24 September 2:30PM
Author Rory Mitchell
RacingNews365

Max Verstappen's victory at the Japanese Grand Prix and Red Bull's sixth Formula 1 Constructors' Championship.

‘Pictures in the link below!’;

https://racingnews365.com/in-picture...ctors-f1-title


The Highlight Of Suzuka Was Sergio Pérez’s 41-Minute Pit Stop
If you are on the east coast of the United States... There are some aspects of this that are bad, like sleep deprivation, and some aspects that are good, like getting to deliriously watch Sergio Pérez unretire his car for the express purpose of serving a five-second time penalty.
1:26 PM EDT on September 24, 2023
By Kathryn Xu
Defector

He started P5 this race, a decent qualification, but one that guaranteed he would be in traffic. At Suzuka, that meant about five separate collisions and an immediate safety car to start the race. For Pérez, it meant being sandwiched with Lewis Hamilton on one side and two Ferraris on the other. After kissing wheels with Hamilton going into turn one, Pérez pit for a new front wing, got a 10-second penalty for failing to adhere to pit stop procedure, and wound up behind the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

The Haas proved an even more formidable foe for Pérez than Hamilton did. Out of the points and impatient, Pérez made an extremely late lunge up the inside of Magnussen from several car lengths away and tapped Magnussen's rear tire with his front wing. The move functioned more as a dive bomb than an overtake attempt and was, at this point, well-rehearsed after he'd tried it last week on Alexander Albon. Pérez wound up with the same penalty too: a mere five seconds that was rendered meaningless for the race. However, this time Pérez, on his third front wing of the day, retired the car.

After likely undertaking a lengthy discussion with race control, Red Bull officially unretired Pérez's car on lap 40 to do his lap of shame. The original retirement became classified as a 41-minute pit stop, which will no doubt deal a great blow to the Red Bull mechanics' average pit-stop time. Upon reentering, Pérez was 26 laps behind the race leader, Max Verstappen, and five laps behind the next-closest driver, Lance Stroll, who had already retired his car. Pérez came into the pits once more to serve his penalty, which was classified as taking place on lap 14 of the race. Just a couple laps prior, Carlos Sainz Jr. had pitted on lap 38 of the race—such are the intricacies of F1. The following lap, Pérez retired the car again, this time for good, and disrupted our previous understanding of how retirements work: Sometimes, it takes more than one try to get it to stick.

‘Pérez’s 41-Minute Pit Stop’;

https://defector.com/the-highlight-o...inute-pit-stop


Marko backs Perez to recover from poor Suzuka outing
24 September 3:30PM
Author Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has backed Sergio Perez to recover from his difficult outing at the Japanese Grand Prix.

"He had an unfortunate day which originated in the free practice sessions,” Marko told Viaplay. “He couldn't match Max's speed and today just everything went wrong, but we are confident of a strong comeback from him.”

‘Marko backs Perez to recover’;

https://racingnews365.com/marko-back...-suzuka-outing


Marko reveals Red Bull FIA talks to 'prioritise Verstappen'
Sunday 24 September 2023 22:27
Sam Cook
GPFans

Helmut Marko has said that Red Bull were given permission by the FIA to allow Sergio Perez to return to the circuit, having already retired from the race, to serve his penalty at the Japanese Grand Prix. It was a strange moment in which it appeared Red Bull may have bent the rules slightly, but Marko has told Sky Germany that the team had cleared it with the FIA.

"Thank god we were able to serve the penalty here," he said. “[They told us] if we did not serve the penalty here, then we would have had to do it in the next race and our strategy is to prioritise Max. For example, in the case of a safety car, we would send him out in a way where Max would not be hindered.”

‘FIA Permission’;

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/10...perez-penalty/