1996 Formula One World Champion Damon Hill, who currently works as part of the Sky Sports F1 broadcasting support team providing expert analysis during free practice sessions, believes Scuderia Ferrari will be able to fight back and challenge Red Bull in the second round of the 2023 Formula One campaign, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place next weekend at the Jeddah Corniche circuit, a 6.174 km motor racing circuit built in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.
The Maranello team reportedly stopped the development of the F1-75 challenger last year, with the goal of focusing its time and resources on the 2023 F1 car, hoping to defeat Red Bull this season. However, the controversial management changes which took place during the winter, with Mattia Binotto leaving the team and several other key engineers and team members also deciding to resign, seem to have affected the direction taken by the Italian side.
The first round of the 2023 F1 championship was marked by a disappointing outcome and expectations for an exciting title battle have now diminished after the poor start to the 2023 campaign in Sakhir: Max Verstappen and Serio Perez completely dominated the season opener for Red Bull, easily securing a one-two finish, ahead of Fernando Alonso.
The Dutchman could even afford to run with limited engine power given his huge advantage at the top, ending the Bahrain Grand Prix with a 38-second gap to the nearest non-Red Bull car. As a result, we may be facing another era of one-team/driver domination following the Mercedes superiority until two years ago.
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Scuderia Ferrari had hoped to fix its reliability ahead of the new season, but was once again affected by power unit issues, with Charles Leclerc having to retire while running in third place. His Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz struggled with tyre management and was not able to get involved in the battle for the podium, as Aston Martin proved to be an overall faster car than Ferrari in Bahrain.
However, British engineer Adrian Newey, the Red Bull chief technical officer, pointed out that the “peculiarities” of the Sakhir circuit – which include a very abrasive track surface and places a large emphasis on traction – could have contributed to the Austrian side’s impressive performance and Damon Hill is also expecting the Maranello team to come back stronger in the next round of the 2023 F1 season, at Ferrari to hit back at the Jeddah Corniche circuit:
In a recent discussion for the F1 Nation podcast, he former world champion explained:
“It’s going to be different [to Bahrain]. We’re going to realise Ferrari have got pace, they have got the ability to race and they’ll be all over the back of the Red Bulls with the DRS zones and everything. It’s going to be great. A lot of people if not all of the people we spoke to after Bahrain – [Aston Martin team principal] Mike Krack included, Adrian Newey called it a sample of one – [agreed that] Bahrain is not a typical circuit. It’s extraordinarily abrasive and the combination of corners is very tight and twisty, I can’t think of another circuit it compares to really [for] high rear-tyre deg. We’re going now to a circuit which has got very different characteristics and demands on the car, so the order will not necessarily be exactly as it was in Bahrain.” – he added.
Damon Hill feels the Saudi Arabian event will provide more clarifications regarding the true performance of each teams and how the rest of the year will unfold, explaining that Aston Martin may not prove to be as fast and consistent as in the Bahrain season-opener:
“I think what’s going to be really important as an indicator for how the season will pan out is going from Bahrain to Saudi, which is a different type of circuit,” he added.
“It is going to give a pointer as to whether there’s any chink in the armour for Red Bull, whether it actually is track specific; the performance of maybe Ferrari will be much more competitive and a circuit with less tyre deg, certainly in race conditions, and also their horsepower as well. Aston Martin have now kind of created an expectation that they’re going to be brilliant at every event, so they are going to find out that you’ve got to keep it up if you’re going to do well.” – the 1996 F1 world champion concluded, ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
