Expecting Max Verstappen to ease off on the throttle at the Abu Dhabi season finale left many sorely disappointed.
Instead, the world champion asserted his dominance, concluding a record-breaking year with, aptly enough, yet more records.
Here are the facts and figures you need to know:
● With his 54th career win, Verstappen surpasses Sebastian Vettel to claim third place on the all-time win list, trailing only Michael Schumacher with 91 wins and Lewis Hamilton with 103.
● Verstappen closes the year setting records for most single-season wins (19), consecutive race wins (10), podium finishes (21), highest points total (575), and largest championship-winning margin (290).
● Verstappen's 11th hat-trick weekend (win, pole position, and fastest lap) ties him with Jim Clark, trailing only Hamilton (19) and Schumacher (22).
● Today, Verstappen made history as the first driver to exceed 1,000 laps led in a single season.
● Verstappen's tally of 1,003 laps led this season exactly matches McLaren's total in their 1988 season with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
● Verstappen was the sole driver to complete every racing lap in the 2023 season.
● Red Bull enters the 2024 season just one win behind Williams (113-114) for fourth place on the all-time win list.
● Charles Leclerc secured second place behind Verstappen in Abu Dhabi for the second consecutive year.
● Leclerc remains without a win in three of his last four seasons with Ferrari.
● George Russell secured his second podium finish of the season (both third places).
● Russell's result aided Mercedes in securing second place in the constructors' championship, edging out Ferrari by three points.
● Sergio Perez was classified in P4 for Red Bull after losing positions due to a five-second time penalty after the chequered flag (he also lost positions in the final lap of the previous two races).
● Lando Norris claimed P5 for McLaren, finishing sixth in the drivers’ championship, just one point away from fourth.
● With Oscar Piastri contributing to their points, McLaren finishes fourth in the constructors' championship, one spot higher than in 2022.
● Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso took P7 and finished fourth in the drivers’ championship, marking his first top-five finish since being runner-up in 2012-13.
● Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri finished in P8 and led a Grand Prix for the first time, only the second Japanese driver to do so after Takuma Sato at the Nurburgring in 2004.
● Hamilton finished in P9, having scored only two points at Yas Marina in the last two years.
● Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll secured P10 in the race and in the drivers' championship.
● This marked the first season-ending race to conclude without a single retirement.
● There are 97 days until the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.