Max Verstappen’s 2023 F1 world championship title defence is over for he is the world champion in waiting only. As the Formula One season approaches halfway through its very busy schedule, it seems Verstappen is merely obliged to turn up for the remaining races to ensure his sponsors are kept in the limelight. Like a Manga mecha-style organism, the combination of Verstappen and the Red Bull RB19 is simply too immense. The forces of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin are currently too weak to confront this mechanical monster ravaging every Grand Prix weekend.

The 2023 British Grand Prix fell to Verstappen as his Red Bull stormed quietly to victory. Lando Norris gave Verstappen a reminder of what it is like to lose the lead at the start of the race. Having secured pole position, Verstappen submitted to wheel spin at the start of the race allowing second-placed Norris to charge into the lead. Norris put up a fight for five laps before the Mecha Red Bull stormed back into the lead. From that point forward Verstappen was in race management mode.

Behind the leader a race was on for second place, Mclaren’s raft of up updates has propelled the team from back of the back grid shame to the glory of the front row. Norris qualified a strong second. However, questions remained about McLaren’s race pace and these questions were answered in the race because Norris managed to fend off Hamilton despite a number of disruptive safety car periods.

Mercedes didn’t qualify well by their own standards but the car’s race pace seems much better than its single-lap pace with Lewis Hamilton confirming this by finishing second. By comparison, the Ferraris have no problems with single lap pace, but yet again long duration pace yielded a lowly 9th for Charles Leclerc and 10th place for Carlos Sainz, both finished behind the Williams of Alex Albon.

So Max Verstappen took his eighth victory of the season, his sixth in a row and his only realistic challenger, Sergio Perez finished sixth. Perez is no longer a serious contender for the 2023 drivers championship. Verstappen has moved up another level and his level was already high. The 2023 British Grand Prix served to demonstration that Verstappen is the 2023 world champion elect.

2023 British Grand Prix Results: 

1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing

2 Lando NORRIS McLaren +3.798

3 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +6.783

4 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +7.776

5 George RUSSELL Mercedes +11.206

6 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +12.882

7 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +17.193

8 Alexander ALBON Williams +17.878

9 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +18.689

10 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +19.448

11 Logan SARGEANT Williams +23.632

12 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +25.830

13 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +26.663

14 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +27.483

15 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo +29.820

16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +31.225

17 Nyck DE VRIES AlphaTauri +33.128

Did not finish

Pierre Gasly Alpine lap 47

Kevin Magnussen Haas lap 32

Esteban Ocon Alpine lap 10