Red Bull May Win Every Race
I think most of us scoffed at the notion from George Russell this preseason that Red Bull would win all 22 races. However, after 8 events, they’re still undefeated and showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
With a week off, there’s 4 races in the 5 weekend’s in July ahead. There’s no reason to believe that Red Bull won’t win all four.
While Charles LeClerc and Ferrari won last year’s race at the Red Bull Ring, Max Verstappen won both races there in 2021. Ferrari is no where close to winning yet and Red Bull is no where close to being challenged.
Barring a disaster, Red Bull wins their home race.
Then it’s to England. Carlos Sainz Jr. won that. Again, Ferrari hasn’t had the pace.
Hungary and Belgium are after. Verstappen won both a year ago. After the summer break, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and Japan are up next. Verstappen won 3 of the 4 with Perez taking the other.
That gets us to October….
Should Perez Be Worried?
I felt like there was no way Sergio Perez gets bounced out of his ride with Red Bull. He was a perfect pairing with Verstappen and was happy to play the role of their B driver. He finished third in points last year and helped them win the constructors championship too.
Now, I’m starting to wonder.
After four top two finishes in the first five races, including two wins, he’s slipped. A crash in Monaco qualifying left him 16th in the race. Being eliminated in Q2 in each of the last two races in Spain and Montreal left him rallying to 4th and 6th respectively on both race days. He went from being a prime challenger to Verstappen for this year’s championship to falling in risk of being passed by Fernando Alonso for second in points.
Alonso has two runner-up finishes in the last three races and is now trailing Perez by just 9 in the standings.
When you see quotes from Christian Horner about Perez being able to finally start turning his results around now that the pressure is off, that’s saying something. That says that the team doesn’t think Perez can perform under pressure.
With rumors flying abound on this seat, is Perez safe anymore?
If he can’t be in the top two with this car in this era, when can he?
Iconic Podium
When I see Sunday’s podium between Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, I can’t help but to think of the famous 1991 photo from the Indy 500 front row. Rick Mears, AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti. 3 of the best to ever do it.
Will we look at this Montreal photo of the 2023 podium in the same regards?
Max Verstappen just won the 100th race for Red Bull and the 41st of his career. He equals Ayrton Senna for the fifth most wins ever. Alonso is seventh (32) while Hamilton (103) is tops.
Verstappen is the youngest winner ever in F1. Alonso is fourth and Hamilton seventh.
Hamilton has the most ever podium finishes (194). Alonso’s 104 is fifth and Verstappen’s 85 ranks seventh.
There’s 11 championships between them with a 12th soon on the way for Verstappen.
This podium could quite likely be the best ever.
Mercedes Is Coming
With that said of Lewis Hamilton scoring his second straight podium, it goes to show that Mercedes is coming and they’re getting better quickly. Both drivers didn’t expect to play much of a role in the races’ outcome entering the weekend. They knew they’d be better at circuits like Spain, but ones like Montreal, not so much. However, after practice and then qualifying, they knew a win was out of reach, but another double podium wasn’t.
While George Russell crashed and later had brake problems, Mercedes was a threat. They’ve close the gap to Aston Martin in regards to speed and race winning potential and look like they could now be Red Bull’s biggest rival again moving forward.
Yes, Alonso was runner-up, but they brought an upgrade. Mercedes still has another one coming and the fact that they were good on a track that they didn’t’ expect to be is a massive sign of things to come.
Hamilton has four straight top four finishes and coming to places to where he finished third at in both events a year ago.
When Do You Punt On ’23?
With Red Bull’s dominance, when do you just turn the page on 2023 and start planning for 2024? It’s pretty clear they’re going to win 95% of the races, if not more. The drivers championship and constructors title are both theirs. No one is coming close.
So, at what point do you turn to next season and hope to be way ahead of the game? In this cost cap era, what better way to get data than to get real data on track now. Why not try new things to see if they can work for next season?
You’re not catching Red Bull’s this season and with the delta so large, the best way to close that gap is to get a very early head start to 2024?
The thing is, what would stop Red Bull from doing the same? They know some teams may try, so with no real threat to them and their gap so large, even taking their eyes off the ball for some races may still get them wins.
That’s why I’m curious who starts planning ahead.
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