Formula One: Red Bull play down talk of winning every race
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Red Bull's Max Verstappen in action during the race.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Red Bull were so dominant in Formula One’s Bahrain season opener over the weekend that Mercedes rival George Russell suggested they could win every race in 2023.
The Briton was not alone in pointing to such a scenario, even if such a sweep would be unprecedented in a championship that started in 1950 with far fewer rounds than the current record 23.
The mood in the paddock after Sunday’s race at Sakhir, and the airport talk among departing insiders, reflected a realisation that Red Bull may have given only a glimpse of their real pace.
Two-time world champion Max Verstappen finished 11.987 seconds ahead
The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was over 48 seconds behind the winner and Verstappen was also racing without pressure, holding plenty in reserve.
“Red Bull have got this championship sewn up,” Russell said after finishing seventh. “I don’t think anyone will be fighting with them this year. They should win every single race, that’s my bet.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner naturally played down such talk and said that last Sunday’s race had still been a tense and nervous experience because so many things could go wrong.
“We’re not taking anything for granted,” he said.
“Let’s see Jeddah in two weeks, Melbourne after that. Once we’ve got two or three circuits under our belt we’ll get a much better picture of strengths and weaknesses of our car and our opposition.
“Twenty three races is a marathon. We fully expect our rivals to come back hard in future races.
“People have a very short memory in this business. You’re as good as your last race. Today we’re heroes, tomorrow it could be Ferrari, Mercedes or be Aston Martin.”
Red Bull won 17 of 22 races in 2022 with Verstappen victorious in all but two of those.
Mercedes in the past decade, McLaren with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988, and Michael Schumacher with Ferrari in the early years of this century were all similarly dominant but none managed to record a perfect campaign.
In 1988, McLaren won 16 of 17 races but Gerhard Berger broke the run with an emotional victory for Ferrari at Monza.
Teams can turn things around, as Russell showed last season when he won in Brazil after wrestling earlier in the campaign with a bouncing car.
Red Bull have now won 10 of the last 12 races but reliability, crashes and errors can never be ruled out – even if Verstappen is getting even better and makes few mistakes.
The Dutchman said: “This is a great start but we also know that throughout the season you have to keep on developing.”
Horner also welcomed F1’s “massive growth” and described Netflix’s wildly successful Drive To Survive documentary series and its depiction of the sport was “like the Kardashians on wheels at times”. He added: “The show has introduced F1 to a whole new audience, a younger and American audience.”
F1 has exploded in the US, with three races planned for 2023 and new episodes of the Netflix series on the way.
The 2022 season also averaged 1.21 million US viewers per race, up 28 per cent from a record set the year before, according to ESPN. In November, the penultimate race of this season will be held in Las Vegas for the first time since 1982.
“It will be the biggest sporting event on the globe this year,” added Horner. “The demand for that race is off the charts. Anybody who is anyone will be at that weekend.” REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
