The 2023 season is only a month away from getting underway and it promises to be one of the most exciting yet.
Unlike in most seasons over the last decade, there will likely be more than just two teams going head-to-head for the title, with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all confident of their chances.
After eight years of dominance, the constructors’ championship trophy left Mercedes last season to head to Red Bull, who achieved a stunning double.
After overcoming their porpoising problem and getting to grips with the new regulations, Mercedes have promised that the W14 will be much more competitive that last season’s car, putting them in with a good chance of returning to winning ways.
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As for Ferrari, their pace was never an issue, however reliability woes and strategic blunders cost the team and Charles Leclerc a chance at either championship.
Under the new leadership of Fred Vasseur, the Scuderia will be hoping to eliminate these problems and truly challenge for their first title since 2008.
Former F1 driver Mark Webber has recently been previewing the upcoming season with Autosport and has said that while the other teams are set to improve, the benchmark set by Red Bull may still be too high.
“Red Bull are still the most dangerous team coming out of the blocks,” he said.
“Actually, everybody has to lift their game in all aspects. We saw that Mercedes had great reliability, Ferrari of course less so. But Red Bull had good reliability and were strong at all tracks.
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“And Max, it’s just ‘Formula 1 plus’ for him at times. I think the highlight for me was to see what he did through the field in Spa. That was just unbelievable.”
It is worth noting that Red Bull will be hindered by a significant reduction in their allocated testing time, as their championship finishing position combined with their penalty for breaching the 2021 cost cap will see them given much less wind tunnel testing time than their rivals.
With all three teams boasting an impressive driver pairing, pre-season testing could provide some major clues as to who is the favourite for the title this season.