Max Verstappen says he expects the field to be closer in 2023 F1 season, as he hails the work done in 2022 by Red Bull.
The dust is finally settled on what was a tremendously dominant season for Red Bull and Verstappen. They had 17 wins against Ferrari’s four, Mercedes’ one. The Dutchman took 15 of those 17 victories after for them what was a relatively slow start to the campaign.
But how 2023 pans out, it has to be seen. The current season was Red Bull’s second driver title in a row and their first constructors title since 2013, their halcyon period of the early 2010s, but it remains to be seen if they are about to dominate the sport once more like they did in the Sebastian Vettel era.
Following his win in Abu Dhabi, at the end of the season, Verstappen opened up a bit about the 2023 season and if Red Bull will dominate again or if Ferrari and Mercedes can catch them up. He thinks they will not have it all their own way for the forthcoming season.
“I do think it will be closer,” said Verstappen about the 2023 pecking order. “People are understanding the cars a lot more. And, yeah, over time all the teams will just edge closer. But from our side, yeah, Abu Dhabi was a positive weekend. So that’s, of course, really encouraging also for next year”.
“But we also know now, over the winter, we really have to keep pushing and keep trying to find performance and not only performance, understanding, possibly the tyres even more, because the tyres will change a bit for next year. So yeah, let’s see how we are going to manage all of that,” summed up Verstappen.
While all the teams are getting closer and learning more about the rules and the cars, particularly in the off season winter break, you can’t bet against Verstappen taking a hat trick of titles. After a slow start, coupled with dominance from Ferrari, Red Bull streaked ahead with the best driver, the best car, and invaluable team work from the ground up in Milton Keynes to grid for all 22 rounds.
“It has been a great team effort, especially after our tough start to the year, to turn it around like that, I would have never imagined that, like nobody in the team,” said Verstappen. “But it’s been really enjoyable to be part of this team. We have a lot of fun”.
“Of course, we focus on the performance but you also need to really enjoy the moment, appreciate the moment. And I think we definitely did that. We will do but we already also focusing on next year. You always say you try to do better. I know it’s hard to do a lot better than this but you should always try to aim for that,” summed up Verstappen who noted that the Belgium GP was his best win of the 2022 F1 season.
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