Can Anyone Catch Red Bull This Season?

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This Formula 1 season has taken the term ‘domination’ to a new level. Thanks to Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, and everyone on the Red Bull team, the RB19 has emerged as far and away the best car on the 2023 grid. And with Max Verstappen behind the wheel, it has transformed into a rocket ship. Max even said so himself after the last race in Hungary, calling his machine a literal “rocket ship”. The Dutchman has gobbled up all but two race victories this season, with his teammate Sergio Perez holding the other pair. Red Bull just surpassed McLaren’s record of 11 consecutive victories, and are showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, Verstappen’s 33 second margin of victory in Hungary was the largest of the season.

So the question remains: who, if anyone, can stop the all mighty Red Bull Racing?

The first team that comes to mind is Mercedes, as they spent the better half of the last decade kicking in the teeth of the competition much like Red Bull is doing now. You don’t earn seven consecutive drivers championships and eight consecutive constructors championships without knowing what you’re doing. The core of Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton is dangerous no matter what year it is, even though the past couple of seasons have been below their high standards. Hamilton did take pole position off Verstappen in Hungary by 0.003 of a second, and even though he slipped to fourth in the race, it does show that the team back at Brackley are making gains on the car. They’ve got a long way to go to catch the RB19, but the W14 might yet challenge Red Bull come season’s end.

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While further down the order than they’re used to in Hungary, Ferrari has shown as recently as last year that they have what it takes to win races. Their start to the 2022 season was brilliant, and Charles Leclerc looked to be the championship favorite after two wins in the first three races. However, as we all know, the wheels quickly fell off for the Scuderia, and they haven’t been able to recover since. There have been flashes of optimism this season, such as Leclerc’s pole in Azerbaijan and second place finish in Austria, but other than that they have rarely looked like serious contenders. Not only will they have to get their car sorted if they want to challenge Red Bull, but they will also have to finally eliminate the strategy blunders that have long plagued the team. If they can figure those areas out, we might just see a driver in scarlet overalls on the top step of the podium once again. 

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New to the fight at the front this year is McLaren. After an absolutely dreadful start to the season, their fortunes began to turn around in Austria when Lando Norris finished in fourth, their best result of the season. And all of a sudden, in the following round at Silverstone, both drivers were somehow challenging the dominant Verstappen for pole position. A 2-3 qualifying result sent the team and their fans into a frenzy, although many assumed the hype would be short lived. Those assumptions were quickly proven wrong, as Lando was the only driver to hang with Max during the race, and converted on his pace to take a second place finish, with Oscar Piastri right behind him in fourth (he really should have finished on the podium if not for a poorly timed safety car). The following race in Hungary only reaffirmed that McLaren are indeed back, as another second place for Lando and a fifth for Oscar showed the world that they have the second quickest car at the moment. The Woking-based outfit has found themselves as close to Red Bull as any team has managed this season, and they may very well capitalize on their newfound pace to finally unseat the RB19 at the top of the field.

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On the flip side, Aston Martin has taken a nose-dive in performance as of late. After they emerged from pre-season testing with the second quickest car, their pace has steadily dropped off for the most part. Their highlight of the season was by far Fernando Alonso’s runner up finish in Monaco, a race he could have potentially won had his team employed a better tire strategy. Still, most figured at the time that Aston Martin’s day would soon arrive, but since Monaco the car has slowly but surely fallen down the order. Alonso claimed after a sixth place finish in Spain that that would be the last time he failed to make the podium; however, he has only managed one podium across the four races since then, with his ninth place in Hungary being his worst result of the season. Aston Martin will have to rediscover some of their early-season magic if they want to pull a win out of this year, but if they are able to right the ship and return to the front, Max Verstappen had better watch out, because Fernando Alonso will stop at nothing to capture his elusive 33rd career win. 

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The final team that is even in the same zip code as Red Bull is Alpine. While they have consistently lagged behind the front runners as the fifth or sixth best car all year, they have a significant performance gap to those behind them, such as Haas, Williams, and Alfa Romeo. Their best finish of the year also came at Monaco, where Esteban Ocon delivered a surprise third place for the team. He was greatly assisted by convenient weather and the misfortunes of others, but a podium is a podium nonetheless. Not to mention, Ocon and Alpine stole a victory at Hungary just two years ago with a car that was just as far off the leaders as their current one is now. If they’ve done it before, they can do it again, although it will likely take the same minor miracles to occur that happened last time. There’s even the chance they find a massive step up in performance mid-season like McLaren have, and establish themselves at the front on pure merit and pace. If they want to accomplish that, they’ve got a lot of ground to make up, but it’s not impossible that Alpine makes it happen in a few months' time.

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What do you think? Will any team be able to take a win off Red Bull this season, and if so, which one? Or will Red Bull sweep the entire season and make Formula 1 history?