What’s left to race for in the 2023 Formula One season?

By Zafir Nagji, Staff Writer

Even though this year’s Formula One (F1) season has yet to officially end, Red Bull Racing have already took home the 2023 Constructors’ Championship at the Japanese Grand Prix held in September, while their superstar driver Max Verstappen captured his third-consecutive Drivers’ Championship during the Qatar Grand Prix’s sprint race. While the final three races of the season may not decide the overall winner in each of these categories, they are still worth watching — and it isn’t to see who finishes second or third, but rather seventh through tenth.

According to Williams’ Racing team principal, James Vowles, his team along with nearly half the grid are running losses to be able to compete in this sport and the difference between seventh and tenth place (P7 and P10, respectively) in the Constructors’ Championship is an estimated $35 million. Meaning, these four teams will not be fighting for bragging rights, but instead, survival in the sport. Sponsors also want to see the teams they invest in win races or, at least, be competitive in the midfield.

This was shown by the Haas F1 Team, who found themselves in a never-ending, rotating door of morally questionable sponsors that pulled out shortly after investing with this F1 team and leaving their owner, Gene Haas, to pick up the pieces. 

Of the four teams that are racing for closest spot to the midfield, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri are the only two constructors that can sit comfortably if they find themselves in a bottom position at the season’s end. While Alfa Romeo awaits their buyout from future F1 team Audi, a transaction that will be completed by the time F1’s new technical regulations take effect in 2026, AlphaTauri is also in no danger as funding from parent team Red Bull will continue well into the future. 

However, the story is very different for the other two backmarkers, Haas and Williams. 

Prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, Williams was the team to beat, as they sat in seventh among constructors with 28 points. Thanks to some impactful upgrades from the engineering side of the team and a series of phenomenal weekend drives by Thai driver Alexander Albon, Williams holds a 12-point buffer over the eighth-placed AlphaTauri team. Their FW45 race car has been praised all year for its straight-line speed and predictability around high-speed corners, but only mustered one positive slow-circuit result at the Canadian Grand Prix when Albon gifted his team a seventh-placed finish. Albon has scored all but one of his team’s 12 points this season, so it will be his responsibility to figure out how to maximize the performance of his car for the remainder of the season. 

Haas, on the other hand, is in a much more pressured position, as they sit in last place with a mere 12 points — just four behind Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri, who are tied at 16. After years of being unable to spend up to the budget cap and dealing with fraudulent or politically controversial sponsors, like Rich Energy or Uralkali, little to no improvement has been shown in Haas’ end-of-year finishing position. 

Now, with financial organization, MoneyGram, being their first legitimate investor in years, they’ve been able to bring more development to the car. Resulting in their one-lap pace and straight-line speed seeing improvements compared to previous years. This helped their two drivers, Niko Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, qualify in the top-ten seven times. However, on race days, their best result was a seventh-place finish by Hulkenberg in Australia. The team also went scoreless in 15 of this year’s 19 completed races. Their car struggles with tire wear and requires the drivers to control their pace during races to minimize pit stops as opposed to pushing the car to its limits to maximize their chances of scoring points. But, their VF-23 racecar is respected for its high top speed and surprisingly quick qualifying pace, which helps them on tracks with long straights separated by corners that are difficult to overtake on.

Following a quick trip to Brazil’s Autódromo de Interlagos track, the two remaining races this season will be held down the strip of Las Vegas before ending in Abu Dhabi. 

Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi should create interesting battles between Williams and Haas as they’ll duel it out on the 1.2 kilometre-long straight at Yas Marina Circuit and the 1.9 kilometre-long straight on the Las Vegas street circuit. 

These last races will be crucial as both teams try to stay in the billionaire’s playground of F1 long enough to see their cars improve.