RED BULL ROCKETS AWAY

REIGNING CHAMPIONS LOOK UNBEATABLE IN EARLY-SEASON FORMULA 1 ACTION

Acouple of races into the 2023 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen and his blazingly fast Red Bull car look well on their way to a third consecutive world championship.

After getting the best out of the rule changes last year and romping to a double world title, many thought a development time penalty for a 2022 cost cap breach would slow Red Bull Racing’s progress this season. Instead, the team from Milton Keynes barely missed a step and seems even further ahead of the rest this year than last when it won 17 of 22 races.

When asked where the 2023 challenger improved over last year’s car, Verstappen simply answered “everywhere.”

“Our car was a bit fat last year so naturally, it’s in a much better window and what you have learned throughout the whole year...gives you a much better understanding of the car. Sure, that naturally makes it better but that doesn’t mean that we are satisfied. You always want to do better, and we want to put improvements on the car, which we will do,” said Verstappen.

Fans attending June’s Canadian Grand Prix can probably expect a repeat of a Verstappen win from pole unless the other teams can bring significant upgrades that close the gap. And with Red Bull being significantly faster than the rest in race trim than in qualifying, fans should be wary of thinking Sunday’s race in Montreal will be closely fought if there’s a hotly contested pole on Saturday.

Although Red Bull’s domination seems likely to continue into the foreseeable future, some outfits upped their game significantly in the off-season, most notably Aston Martin which looks to be the best of the rest in the early going.

Aston Martin’s 2023 design direction certainly caught the eye of Sergio Perez, who quipped that it was “nice to see three Red Bull cars on the podium,” after he and teammate Max Verstappen finished ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Ironically, Aston Martin’s predecessor, Racing Point, weathered a storm of criticism in 2020 when its challenger earned the nickname the ‘Pink Mercedes,’ because it looked remarkably like the Brackley squad’s then all-conquering car.

With Aston Martin in the mix, 2023 becomes the first season in about 25 years that a Canadian will arrive in Montreal with a reasonable shot of winning at home. While the stars would need to align perfectly, a Canadian Grand Prix victory remains in the cards for 24-year-old Lance Stroll who could repeat Gilles Villeneuve’s feat of a maiden Formula 1 victory in Canada. With Nicholas Latifi parting with Williams Racing at the end of 2022, Stroll became the only Canadian on the grid.

Driving for a team owned by his billionaire dad, Stroll frequently serves as a convenient target for those who claim his background – and not his results – keep him in an Aston Martin seat. Prior to the 2023 season, Stroll scored three podiums and one pole in 122 Formula 1 starts. The Montreal-born racer silenced many critics with a gutsy sixth-place finish in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix while driving with screws holding his right wrist together after being injured in a late February cycling crash.

“It was a day-by-day thing. With these injuries it’s always hard to tell. There is not a quick answer how long it will take,” said Stroll before the race in Bahrain, which ran just 15 days after the accident that also saw him miss preseason testing. “The first few days were rough.”

Despite obvious pain and limited strength in both wrists, Stroll drove an inspired race to give Aston Martin a double points finish, with the Canadian crossing the line three spots below his new teammate Fernando Alonso.

Stroll’s quick return and determination to race in Bahrain attracted praise from the two-time world champion who left Alpine at the end of 2022 to replace the retired Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin.

“That shows his desire to win. And you know, this is even fighting for whatever position we can achieve,” said Alonso. “So that’s a very good sign.”

Joining Aston Martin in a move up the grid early on is Williams, although its gains only get it to the midfield. The team that delivered Canada’s only world champion in Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 and gave both Stroll and Latifi their starts in Formula 1 looks to be a solid top ten contender on most weekends. Last year, Williams finished dead last in the team standings, which means it got more wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics time than the rest of the field under Formula 1’s new rules.

“Looking at the progress the team has made in 12 months –knowing we’re able to fight for points each weekend – myself and the team live for that, and motivation is high,” said team leader Alex Albon. “I’m positive and feel like compared to last year the car feels much better and we’re in the fight.”

While Williams improved, one mighty name on the Formula 1 grid continues to flounder under the new regulations: McLaren.

After finishing as high as third in 2020 and seeing Daniel Ricciardo score its first win in a decade at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, McLaren slipped to fifth in team points last year. Things went from bad to worse as 2023 began, with the Woking outfit’s car looking painfully uncompetitive.

Rookie Oscar Piastri stands to be the big loser after an acrimonious split with Alpine last year saw him land at McLaren. Even worse, it could be argued that Aston Martin’s improvement in 2023 arose from all the pieces put in place by former team boss Otmar Szafnauer prior to his departure in early 2022. Now at the Alpine F1 Team, Szafnauer’s influence may see that team improve even more and Piastri will find the gap widen between his new team and the French outfit he abandoned.

Ironically, Ricciardo’s decision to take a buyout from McLaren and sign one-year reserve driver deal with Red Bull looks even better considering his old team’s slide further down the grid.

While McLaren hopes that some planned upgrades will be a step in the right direction, Piastri knows 2023 might be a tough slog for the Woking squad.

“I think it’ll definitely help us to move closer to the front of the grid,” he said. “It’ll get us on the right track, I hope, but we are not underestimating that everyone else will probably have new parts as well, so we’ll see how much competitiveness we gain.” IT