McLaren claim lucky victory over Red Bull

Norris en Pérez in gesprek in de paddock in Bakoe — Photo: © LAT Images

GPFans F1 Awards

McLaren claim lucky victory over Red Bull

Dominated voting category among other teams

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Saturday 6 January 2024 20:57

One big story from the F1 season in 2023 was the seismic turnaround in McLaren's fortunes from being hopeless also-rans to arguably Red Bull's chief challengers.

Indeed it is one of the biggest in-season reversals in form seen in the sport at least in recent years.

After just one top-five finish in the first nine races, they then reeled off nine podium finishes for the remainder of the season to claim a convincing fourth place in the constructors' championship.

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The sky is the limit now and the Woking team will have their eyes on challenging Red Bull next season.

But their success wasn't all just by design according to GPFans readers, as they voted Zak Brown's team the luckiest during the 2023 season.

McLaren reeled off a series of podiums in the second half of the season

James Vowles helped turn around Williams' fortunes

Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races on their way to winning both world championships

Incredible McLaren turnaround

As part of our annual awards, McLaren took half of the votes to comfortably come out on top. While it did seem wild that all of McLaren's upgrades introduced appear to work perfectly, as the old cliche goes - you make your own luck.

Taking up 29 per cent of the vote were the Williams team, who while impressing to move from last to seventh place across 2023, were left hanging on to the position by Abu Dhabi following a late surge from AlphaTauri.

Red Bull took the rest of the votes on 21 per cent, enjoying the benefits of not only building a dominant car but also seeing every major rival trip over themselves trying to catch them.

Red Bull Max Verstappen McLaren Zak Brown James Vowles