How competitive will 2023 be?
As the 2023 Formula One season fast approaches, the question at every fan’s lips is this: Will Red Bull and Max Verstappen dominate again? The 2022 season was a record-breaking year for the UK-based team and its star Dutch driver, winners of their first Drivers and Constructors Championship double since 2013.
In 2022, Max Verstappen won a record-breaking 15 races in the season and sealed his 2nd consecutive World Drivers Title at the Japanese Grand Prix with four races remaining. The Red Bull team were equally dominant in the Constructors championship, wrapping up the title in the following race in America.
Many fans hope Red Bull’s main rivals, Mercedes and Ferrari, will close the gap and provide a genuine three-team fight for both championships.
RED BULL: Despite their double-championship success, 2022 did not end ideally for Red Bull Racing. First, they were deemed guilty of breaking cost-cap rules in 2021, a season where Max Verstappen stole the Driver’s Championship from Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the last race of an explosive season between the two drivers and teams. When such acceptable margins decide a Championship on the track, every slight advantage a team can gain is vital.
So, what part did the Red Bull overspend play in the eventual destination of the 2021 Drivers Title? Red Bull escaped the cost-cap breach with minor punishment, but at a high cost–damage to their sporting reputation amongst F1 fans.
If the PR damage done to Red Bull by the cost-cap saga wasn’t enough, the team brought more public embarrassment onto themselves at the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the race’s closing laps, teammate Sergio Perez was in a close battle for 2nd in the Championship race with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. So the Red Bull team ordered Verstappen to let Perez pass to gain what could be two crucial extra points in the overall Championship. Verstappen refused, saying he had his reasons “and you (the team) know why.”
In 2023 Red Bull will need to ensure they adhere to all sporting rules and regulations to end the doubts cast over the legitimacy of their previous successes. They will also need both drivers working together to hold off the threat of their main rivals.
FERRARI: Ferrari started 2022 with great promise as their star driver Charles Leclerc won two of the opening three races. However, the season rapidly descended into chaos from there. Leclerc would only win one more race all season, as the team seemingly found any way to lose a race.
Whether it was poor car reliability, as experienced in Spain and Azerbaijan, that let them down, or terrible race strategy, as in Monaco, France, and Hungary, Ferrari seemed to be losing championship points through team errors.
In 2023, Ferrari first must prove they have both a fast and crucially reliable car if they are to take the fight to Red Bull throughout the whole season. The team must also prove they have learned from the numerous race strategy mistakes they made in 2022. This has hopefully already been addressed by replacing Team Principle Mattia Binotto with former Alfa Romeo CEO Fred Vasseur. Ferrari hopes Vasseur’s long and experienced career in multiple forms of Motor Racing will bring the nous and expertise they need to the pit wall during the crucial moments of a race.
MERCEDES: By their usual Championship winning high standards, Mercedes suffered a disastrous 2022 F1 season. Only the skill and expertise of drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, plus the race-winning knowledge that ran through the whole team, salvaged any minor success from the season.
George Russell had a good season in 2022, his first at Mercedes. Not only did he win his first F1 race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but he also finished 4th in the Driver’s Championship and became only the 3rd teammate to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Championship standings.
Hamilton seemingly suffered from the acrimonious end to the 2021 season early on and struggled with the poor car concept Mercedes had developed for the 2022 season. Amazingly, Hamilton ended 2022 without a race victory.
In 2023 Mercedes is the only one of the top three teams with both drivers capable of winning the Drivers World Title, but only if the team delivers a car capable of challenging at the top. On the other hand, another year with a sub-par car could yield a situation similar to the fall-out between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that spanned 2014-2016.
FINAL COMMENTS: I think most F1 fans want to see more consistent competition across the teams, and they don’t want to see anything close to what happened at the end of 2021. Let’s hope that multiple teams are in the mix for both championships and that there is exciting racing week after week.
Courtesy Sky Sports
