Bitcar Original In the blink of an eye, the 2023 F1 World Championship season is already halfway through. Just last weekend, the team and drivers ended their journey in Belgium and began to welcome the four-week summer break. In the past races (Emilia Romagna was canceled due to floods), the Red Bull Racing Team's 12-game winning streak has broken the record set by the McLaren Racing Team in 1988 and set a new record for the longest team winning streak in F1 history. 13 consecutive wins (across seasons). Today I will take you through a few keywords to review the first half of the 2023 F1 season that just passed.

●Red Bull Racing’s 12th consecutive win this season

First of all, I have to say that the Red Bull Racing Team, which has won 12 consecutive victories in the beginning, can defeat them this year, or beat Verstappen, only through their own mistakes or track accidents. After the Belgian Grand Prix, Verstappen has appeared in 13 consecutive races (across seasons), and his eighth consecutive victory is only one short of the record set by "senior" Vettel 10 years ago. Maybe Verstappen can tie the record of wins in a single season when he returns to his home stadium in the Netherlands from the summer break. In addition, it must be mentioned that Verstappen has completed 31 consecutive races. It is unknown how long such a "terrible" completion rate will continue.

Another Red Bull driver, Perez got the 33rd podium of his career in Belgium. He was able to keep up with Verstappen at the beginning of the season, but suddenly missed five consecutive races in the middle of the season. The embarrassing situation in Q3 and the unstable state also caused him to drift further away from Verstappen in the driver standings. Fortunately, the strength of the Red Bull Racing car allows him to maintain his second position. His own form has also improved recently. However, the speed of the Mercedes-AMG racing car has improved recently, and Perez may continue to be challenged by Hamilton. .

●42-year-old driver in good condition

The day of the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race was Aston Martin driver Alonso’s 42nd birthday. Although he retired from the sprint race, the Spaniard finished fifth in Sunday’s race. He scored 10 points for the team and currently leads Hamilton by 1 point in third place in the driver standings. In the first 8 races this year, Alonso has been on the podium 6 times, which makes people shout "old trees bloom new flowers". You must know that this year's 6 podiums are the number of podiums he won in the previous 7 seasons. twice.

However, after the Belgian Grand Prix, Alonso's number of appearances this year still stayed at the number "6". The subsequent team's upgrades to the car were not obvious. Although they have been able to gain points in recent races, the overall speed Already surpassed by McLaren and Mercedes-AMG. Now Alonso is temporarily ranked third in the driver standings, all thanks to the advantage established by those 6 podiums. The second half of the season will depend on whether Aston Martin Racing can bring effective car upgrades to help the 42-year-old veteran make his debut again.

●McLaren is picking up speed

At the beginning of the season, the McLaren team did not gain its first points of the 2023 season until the third round in Australia. For a long time after that, the two drivers of the team could only fight for the points area. However, before the Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren upgraded Norris's car, and Norris won fourth place for the team in the race. At the subsequent British Grand Prix, Piastri also installed an upgrade kit. Although he failed to join Norris on the podium at Silverstone, he scored a runner-up and a fourth place, a total of 30 points, which was already more than those before the British Grand Prix. The total points of all stations.

Norris won again in the subsequent Hungarian stationThe second place allowed fans to see that the speed of McLaren's car was not accidental. The image of Norris missing out on the race championship in Sochi in the 2021 season is still vivid in my mind. I very much hope that he can win his first race championship this year, but again, you can only do your best while doing your best. Waiting for Verstappen's car trouble or track incident.

●The mysterious Italian team

Okay, let’s finally talk about the Ferrari team with its profound foundation. Ferrari has not yet "opened" in the race championship this year. Although Leclerc won the third podium this year in Belgium, the speed of the SF-23 car still cannot keep up with the Red Bull RB19 car. Britain and Hungary are not even close to McLaren and Mercedes-AMG. In addition to the level and competitive status of the drivers, I think the two Ferrari drivers are also inferior to the Red Bull drivers. This can be seen from Leclerc's mistake when leading the race in Emilia Romagna last year.

Another thing to say is that although Ferrari has won the fastest tire change four times in the 12 stations this year, what impressed us most are those 4 and 5 pit stop. When it comes to pit stops, I have to mention another Italian team, the Alfa Romeo Team with Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu. Putting aside the speed of this year's C43 racing car, the pit stop speed often makes people "swoon". In addition, in Hungary, Zhou Guanyu achieved the best qualifying result of his career, but encountered a problem with the braking system strategy before the start, and the race was over before it even started. I hope Alfa Romeo can perform normally next season, I don’t expect too much.

●Amazing Albon

If you were asked to vote for the driver with the best half-way performance, who would you vote for? I believe there will be friends who will vote for Albon. The strength of the WilliamsFW45 car is recognized as the last in the paddock, but driving the FW45 car to finish 8th in Albon, England, is the team's best result at home since 2015. All the team's current results Albon also scored all 11 points. Recently, Williams team leader Walls also stated that the team will build the future of the team around Albon and strive to get back on the track of victory.

●The only mid-season substitution so far

At the Italian Grand Prix last year, De Vries replaced Albon in the race. Driving a Williams car, he finished ninth in his first race, and then won the official driver seat of this year's Toro Rosso team. However, as the saying goes, "Some people are happy and some are worried", but this year he became the first driver to be "kicked out". Before the Hungarian Grand Prix, De Vries' performance had not met the team's expectations. Although the strength of this year's AT04 car was average, teammate Yuki Tsunoda also scored points, and there was indeed a certain gap between De Vries' speed and his teammates. The gap,It seems that the FE world champion is also a little acclimatized in the F1 arena.

The person who replaces De Vries is Ricardo, whom you all know. After serving as a reserve driver at Red Bull this year, Ricciardo finally returned to the starting grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, after the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was rear-ended by Xiao Zhou, and the car was damaged and missed the points area. He also failed to enter the points area at the Belgian Grand Prix. I hope the Australian can achieve a breakthrough of zero points after returning from the summer break.

Editor’s comments:

Actually, to be honest, the competitions in many stations this year are still very exciting, but this excitement is more concentrated in the mid-range group. The Red Bull driver's victory is the only constant suspense in all stations. Just like a friend of mine said, after Verstappen won the championship in Belgium, fewer people posted on WeChat. The eight consecutive wins have made the fans a little "numb". Indeed, as fans, we are looking forward to exciting races, and we are even more looking forward to leaving the driver and team championships to the last station to be announced. However, we have to admit that the dominance of the Red Bull RB19 car this year is indeed very strong, compared with the previous years. Mercedes-AMG is even better.

So my expectations for the second half of the season are only about who can end Red Bull's winning streak and whether McLaren driver Norris can win his first race championship. With everyone believing that Verstappen will definitely complete the driver's third consecutive championship this year, it would be nice for the competition among the drivers behind to be fiercer.

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