2023 F1 Japanese GP: Winners and Losers

Max Verstappen won the Japanese GP in dominant fashion as Red Bull clinched their second straight constructors championship. McLaren also had a field day, securing a double podium with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

The F1 paddock takes a breather now for a week before the next race in Qatar. While the drivers and the teams do that, there will be a few unhappy with how the 2023 Japanese GP panned out, while there will be others who would look back at Suzuka with a smile on their face.

Who belongs to which category? Let's find out in our winners and losers feature for the race in Japan.

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2023 F1 Japanese GP

Winner

Red Bull and Max Verstappen

After telling the doubters to 'go s**k an egg,' Max Verstappen made his intentions clear on Saturday only when he revealed that he was looking to dominate.

The Red Bull driver did not like the comments from different corners about the team's underperformance in Singapore, so this was a weekend where he was going to make a statement.

That's exactly what he did, and he went a step ahead as he showed how far back the chasing pack still is from Red Bull—a perfect way to seal the constructors' championship for the Austrian team.

Loser

Sergio Perez

In his post-race interview, Perez made it a point to add how he also contributed to Red Bull's championship triumph this season. He's not wrong in saying that as he has won two races this season and scored 200+ points.

There was, however, a reason why he said that and the reason was a completely shambolic 2023 Japanese GP race weekend from him. That came during a race where one could argue that Verstappen at 80% could have dominated.

Winner

McLaren

McLaren cut a huge chunk into Aston Martin's lead in the championship and secured their first double podium of the season. Theor turnaround is not only remarkable, but it's also a sign of how sometimes you have to take tough decisions in F1.

There's a very high possibility that McLaren could beat Aston Martin in the championship and finish P4. After starting the season with arguably the ninth fastest car, that would be quite impressive.

Loser

Aston Martin

There's a school of thought in the paddock that Aston Martin might just have shifted its focus to the 2024 season earlier than everybody else. For Fernando Alonso's sake, let's hope that's true, as the situation does not look good in any way.

The team were targeting a P2 finish in the championship at the start of the season. They have now dropped to P4 and further if there's no improvement. It's difficult to understand what has happened to Aston Martin, but let's just hope the team knows what's going on and this is just a blip and nothing else.

Winner

Liam Lawson

After being announced that Daniel Ricciardo will partner Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri in 2024, the only thing Liam Lawson could do was make a statement at the 2023 Japanese GP. As it turned out, this was exactly what he did as he beat Tsunod in the race.

He might not have a seat in F1 next season, but Lawson has surely positioned himself as a possible contender for a seat in the future.

Loser

George Russell

The 2023 Japanese GP was a race that should tell Russell that being the obedient young driver at Mercedes will not win him titles. The way he was pushed off the track by Hamilton early in the race and then told to yield position later is going to sting.

Russell needs to understand that he's going against Lewis Hamilton and if he does not put his foot down, he won't be the leader at Mercedes that he aspires to be.

After the Japanese GP Lewis said to the media "Firstly, we are not close", while talking about the points gap between the two. Russell is going in the wrong direction right now, and he needs to get things right soon.