Charles Leclerc has admitted that whilst Ferrari are “trying” to catch Red Bull, the Monegasque can see the Austrians remaining dominant until the new power unit regulations in 2026.
Red Bull are in a complete league of their own currently, with the Milton Keynes-based team boasting a huge 256-point lead in the Constructors’ Championship over Mercedes.
This is because they’ve staggeringly won all 12 races in 2023, 10 of which have come thanks to reigning World Champion Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman even leads the Drivers’ Championship by 125 points, with him set to claim a third consecutive title.
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Red Bull will almost certainly wrap up the Constructors’ Championship imminently, in what’d mark a successful defence of their 2022 title.
It’d be their sixth Constructors’ crown in total, having been victorious every season from 2010-2013.
The biggest concern, is that with the cost cap in place, catching Red Bull in the current regulations is set to be “very difficult”, most because they’ve already got such a comfortable advantage in terms of overall performance.
In Leclerc’s eyes, Red Bull may remain as the team to beat until at least 2026.
“That’s what we are trying to work towards,” Leclerc told media including PlanetF1.com. “But for sure they have a really big margin and it’s going to be very, very difficult to catch them before the next change of regulations.”
Whilst Leclerc can’t see Red Bull being beaten, George Russell is more optimistic.
The British driver noted how Red Bull managed to catch Mercedes in 2021, proving that it’s possible to reduce the leading team’s advantage.
He also uses the recent progress made by Aston Martin and McLaren as further proof, making Russell believe that Red Bull can be caught.
Even he recognises though, that “it’s going to be difficult”.
“When you look at the turn of form that Aston Martin had over last winter, the turn of form that McLaren has had,” Russell told media including PlanetF1.com. “It definitely gives optimism that it can happen.
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“Obviously Red Bull is going to continue to improve, it’s going to be difficult for sure but we saw Red Bull catch Mercedes in the Mercedes era in 2021.
“That was unforeseen as 2020 from Mercedes was a really dominant year [and yet] 2021, Red Bull starts with the quickest car.
“So we’ll be pushing for that but we’re not going to put any huge expectations upon next year. We will take it race by race, making sure we have got all of the right information to make the best decisions possible between now and the Bahrain test next year.”