Red Bull's 2023: The Closest F1 Came to Perfect

If you want to know how hard 24-0 really is, study the season that came closest and still missed. In 2023, Red Bull built the most dominant Formula 1 campaign ever recorded — and the record book still lists a defeat next to it. Here’s the anatomy of a near-perfect year.

The numbers that redefined dominance

Red Bull won 21 of 22 races in 2023, a 95% strike rate that no constructor had ever managed over a full season. Max Verstappen carried the bulk of it with 19 wins, shattering the previous single-season record of 13 shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Sergio Pérez added the other two, winning in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan early in the year.

Along the way Verstappen strung together 10 consecutive victories, from the Miami Grand Prix in May through the Italian Grand Prix in September — another outright record. He clinched the title with rounds to spare and finished with the highest points total in the sport’s history. By every conventional measure, this was as close to untouchable as Formula 1 has been.

The one that got away: Singapore

The perfect run ended under the lights of the Singapore Grand Prix. Red Bull arrived off the pace all weekend — a rare setup miss on a bumpy, low-speed street circuit that never suited the car. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took pole and then drove a tactical masterclass, managing his tyres and cleverly backing the field into the DRS zone to protect himself from the chasing Mercedes. Verstappen, tangled in traffic and out of position, could only finish fifth.

One weekend, one circuit that didn’t fit the car, and the sweep was gone. It’s the same story that ended every dominant season before it — McLaren at Monza in 1988, Mercedes at odd rounds through the hybrid years. A single afternoon is all it takes.

Why even this wasn’t 24-0

Line 2023 up against the math and it makes perfect sense. A 95%-per-race team, per the probability curve, completes a full 24-race sweep only around 30% of the time — likelier than not to fail, even at that historic level. Red Bull ran at exactly that rate and, as the odds predicted, dropped a race. The gap between “best season ever” and “flawless” is precisely the gap our guide on why going 24-0 is nearly impossible is built around.

The other lesson is about redundancy. Red Bull’s two-car strength meant that even on an off weekend for Verstappen early in the year, Pérez could still win — that’s what a genuine two-seat threat buys you. But in Singapore, neither car had the pace, and no amount of driver quality closes that gap. The car sets the ceiling.

What 2023 teaches a 24-0 drafter

• Aim high, but expect the tax. Even the best real season lost a race. If your draft is projecting a sweep, it is asking the model to out-run the 2023 Red Bull.
• Two strong seats add insurance, not immunity. Pérez’s early wins covered Verstappen’s rare quiet weekends — but a circuit that beats your chassis beats both cars at once.
• One bad fit ends it. Singapore wasn’t reliability or weather; it was simply a track the car didn’t like. Every calendar hides a weekend like that.

Red Bull’s 2023 is the high-water mark of modern dominance and still the clearest proof that a perfect season stays out of reach. For where it ranks against the other great campaigns, see the most dominant F1 seasons ever and the most wins in a single season.