Turkeys whose preparation falls within the expenses inherent to the budget cap, dazzling smiles of Chris Horner, Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey depicted as comics, a Daniel Ricciardo little angel happy to bless his friends-enemies Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who play with a model of an RB18 while ignoring unwanted presents: a Ferrari F1-75 with only three wheels (hinting at Carlos Sainz’s messy opening pitstop at the Dutch Grand Prix) and a Mercedes W13. This is the message of good wishes from Red Bull which does not seem able, not even on Christmas, to fully enjoy the party and domination expressed throughout the year that is about to end.
It is not up to us to judge this way of communicating, but clear controversial elements certainly emerge due to a penalty that is still not accepted by the Austrian side despite the infringement being confirmed by the FIA and although the penalty was mitigated following a rather unusual plea bargain in terms of how it was given. What the International Federation established is well known. However, the effects of the 10% reduction in terms of development hours of the RB19 will be unknown.
It is possible to assume that the car will not suffer any problems when starting the 2023 Formula 1 season. The difficulties could and should become evident as the year unravels, when the lower development capacity will have a greater impact on the direct confrontation with the opponents who should once again be Scuderia Ferrari, in the midst of a restructuring phase, and Mercedes which seems to have figured out how to overcome the issues of a project, the W13, too extreme and ineffective to compete for the top.
It is undeniable that Red Bull was the best team to interpret the rules and regulations introduced in the 2022 Formula 1 championship. Indeed, on closer inspection, what it has done best was to develop the car during the construction phase, despite the fact that at the beginning of the 2022 season, the RB18 did not seem to be the reference point of the starting grid.
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“It is inevitable that after a big change in the regulation there are teams that have interpreted it well and teams that have interpreted the rules badly,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner explained in an interview for RB365 – “Who would have imagined that Mercedes would win just one race this year after all the successes achieved in the first eight years of the hybrid era?” – he added.
“We are satisfied with the results of 2022 – continued the English manager – but I have no doubts that the numbers will be different next season. I would like to continue to dominate. But in this area it is a bit unrealistic because other teams are just too good. They will have learned many lessons from this year and I am sure the cars will converge significantly in 2023.” – Christian Horner pointed out.
One of the key issues of “Formula One 2.0” is precisely that of the ability of teams and power unit manufacturers to recover the ground lost at the start by borrowing the technical solutions that have worked best for their rivals. With a not exactly flexible regulation (something Zak Brown complained about quite strongly) it should be easier for the teams behind than for the leader.
On the other hand, this was precisely the goal that Liberty Media wanted to achieve with its Formula 1 based on three pillars (technical balance of performance, budget cap and ground effect cars less sensitive to dirty air). The 2023 Formula 1 championship will be a key year for understanding whether the big goals of the FIA and Liberty Media, namely a much more leveled Formula 1, can be concretely achieved or if there will always be a team able to stand out against the rest of the grid.
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