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F1 statman Sean Kelly mentioned that Max Verstappen's third title in the 2023 season resembles Niki Lauda's final championship win in the sport in 1984.
The Red Bull driver produced the most dominant season F1 has ever witnessed this year, winning 19 of the 22 completed races, including a record of winning 10 consecutive races from Miami to Monza. He secured many records this year in arguably the most dominant car in F1 history as the team won every single race barring the Singapore GP.
While appearing on the Race Podcast, Kelly claimed that Max Verstappen's third title resembled Lauda's final title win as they both had cars that weren't always on the front row at the beginning of the races. He said (50:33):
"It's not the first time we have seen a team much quicker in the race conditions than in qualifying conditions... In 1984, Nikki Lauda won the championship without ever qualifying on the front row.
"So it's something we have seen before in Formula One where the team could weigh their car towards working in race conditions because that's where you get the points. In a way, it bears a resemblance with the MP4/2 McLaren and Red Bull RB19."
Lauda won the F1 world championship title in 1984 by half a point after winning five of the 16 races. He never started on the front row, while his teammate and eventual runner-up Alain Prost, grabbed pole position three times.
Max Verstappen gives insight into Red Bull's potential weakness
The three-time world champion stated that the street circuits were the only area where the Red Bull RB19 seemed to have struggled throughout the 2023 season. Although the team lost just a single race during the entire campaign, it happened on a street circuit in Singapore.
Speaking to the media (h/t RacingNews365), Max Verstappen said:
"We know our weaknesses in the car. That's what we'll try to work on plus, of course, trying to make our strengths even stronger. Look at our race weekend in Singapore. In general, on street circuits, I think we are a bit struggling a bit more like in Vegas also.
"Low speed is definitely not our strongest point in the car; bumps, and curbs as well. So that's definitely a big area where we can improve."
It will be fascinating to see if Red Bull can carve out these weaknesses from the car when they turn up to the track next year. If they do so, then it would be really difficult for the rest of the grid to stop Max Verstappen and the Austrian team from winning yet another championship in the 2024 season.
Max won the Drivers World Championship with a record tally of 575 points, while Red Bull took home the Constructors' Championship by a massive 451-point margin.
