Webber sees Red Bull staying “at the top of the hierarchy” in 2023
Former F1 driver of the Austrian team, Mark Webber, believes that this season Red Bull Racing will still be at the top despite the progress made by other teams.
After winning the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles last year, several races before the end of the season, Austrians fear that they won’t be able to maintain such a significant lead over the other teams in 2023. The main threat comes from Ferrari and/or Mercedes, which were the only two teams, besides Red Bull, to have won a few races last year.
But according to Mark Webber, there is no doubt that Red Bull will begin this season where 2022 ended: “I think Red Bull will always be the most dangerous team from the outset [in 2023],” the Australian stated to Motorsport.com.
Actually, everyone needs to step up their game in all areas. We saw that Mercedes had good reliability, while Ferrari had less of it, of course. But Red Bull had good reliability and was competitive on all tracks. And sometimes it was like ‘Formula 1+’ for Max. I think the highlight for me was what he did in the pack at Spa, it was simply incredible.
Another important point is the sanction imposed on Red Bull by the FIA for the breach of the budget cap committed in 2021. The team has been ordered to pay a seven million dollar fine and have their wind tunnel and CFD testing hours for 2023 reduced by 10%. However, Mark Webber does not see any changes at the top of the hierarchy this year.
« I think no one really knows how much it will affect them, but I’m sure they have enough creative people to keep up with it, comments the Australian.
« But we also don’t know at what level Mercedes has scaled back [the 2022 season]. ‘Scaled back’ is not the appropriate term because there are always lessons to be learned for the following year, but I want to talk about the allocation of time, R&D, and money under the budget cap between the [2022] and 2023 cars. »
