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At a glance
How dominant was Red Bull’s 2023 Formula 1 season? It won 21 of 22 Grands Prix (95.5%), while Max Verstappen won 19 and Sergio Pérez won two. The team scored 860 Constructors’ points, 451 more than runner-up Mercedes. These numbers establish a record-setting season; they do not mean every weekend was controlled, as Singapore was the only race neither Red Bull driver won.
- Grand Prix wins21 / 2295.5% of races
- Constructors’ points860451 clear of Mercedes
- Verstappen wins19Pérez won the other two
Was it the highest season win rate?
For a single season measured by Grands Prix won divided by Grands Prix held, Red Bull’s 21/22 is 95.5%. McLaren won 15 of 16 races in 1988, or 93.75%. The difference is 1.70 percentage points. The arithmetic supports calling Red Bull’s 2023 season a higher win-rate than that famous benchmark, but it does not adjust for calendar size, reliability, scoring, race formats or competitive conditions. This is a season-level rate, not a claim that the RB19 was the best car in all historical contexts.
Verstappen won 19 Grands Prix and Pérez won two; together they account for Red Bull’s 21 race wins.
Grand Prix Wins
Grand Prix races won, count; Sprint results excluded · 2023 season, 22 Grands Prix
| Driver | Grand Prix Wins |
|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | 19 |
| Sergio Perez | 2 |
Verstappen accounted for 19 of the 21 wins, while Pérez took two. Red Bull’s only Grand Prix without a team victory was Singapore, where Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari. The split shows the scale of Verstappen’s contribution but also that the team’s 21 wins were not a one-driver total.
How large was the points advantage?
The final Constructors’ standings put Red Bull on 860 points, Mercedes on 409 and Ferrari on 406. Red Bull’s 451-point margin over second place exceeded Mercedes’ entire season total. The gap between Mercedes and Ferrari was just three points. Those comparisons show both ends of the table: Red Bull separated itself from the field, while the next two teams finished almost level.
Choose a published chart dataset.
| Team | Points | Race wins | Points gap to Red Bull |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Bull Racing | 860 | 21 | — |
| Mercedes | 409 | 0 | 451 |
| Ferrari | 406 | 1 | 454 |
What do the standings conceal?
The Constructors’ margin shows separation over the whole season, not dominance in every session. Three points separated Mercedes and Ferrari for second, while Red Bull’s lead was 451. These numbers are standings differences, not lap-time gaps. A race-by-race chart or qualifying comparison would answer a different question and would need its own denominator and format rules.
Championship points aggregate both cars and every counted race result. They do not show qualifying margins, tyre strategy, reliability or how close a particular Grand Prix was. Nor should sprint results be silently mixed into the win denominator: 2023 included six Sprint events, but the 21/22 calculation above counts only the 22 Grand Prix races. Sprint wins and sprint points are separate competitions.
Verstappen’s 575 drivers’ points and Pérez’s 285 sum to Red Bull’s 860 constructors’ points for the season. That equality is a useful reconciliation check for this team’s drivers. The team’s season still cannot be reduced to those two totals: race wins and point accumulation answer different questions. A win is binary; points reward multiple finishing positions and, in 2023, sprint results also contributed to championship totals.
For a comparison of how rules reshape point totals, see our scoring-systems analysis. Read the Red Bull, Verstappen and Pérez topic pages, or browse the Team Performance archive and Teams hub.
Sources and method
The FIA’s 2023 classifications and Formula 1’s final team standings, drivers’ standings and race winners provide the figures. Win rate = Grand Prix wins ÷ Grand Prix races (21 ÷ 22 = 95.45%, rounded to one decimal); 1988 comparison = 15 ÷ 16 = 93.75%. Point gap = 860 minus the comparison team’s official points. Sprint races are excluded from win rate.