Red Bull 123 points, Aston Martin 65 points, Mercedes 56 points, Ferrari 26 points. Here is the description of the current dominance. The reigning world champions are outclassing the competition despite the limitations due to largely the same technical regulation and the effects deriving from the penalty imposed by the FIA for the infringement of the cost cap limits.
Red Bull dodged the storm with such calm as to suggest that, between now and the end of the year, despite the efforts of its competitors, it will be very difficult to dethrone it from the role of clear favourites. A reality that elsewhere begins to be accepted, albeit reluctantly. “Red Bull did a great job, but I’m still convinced the penalty was too soft.”
These are Frédéric Vasseur’s observations on the values that emerged after a month of sporting activity. “If we consider that during the year a team can improve by less than a second, a 10% penalty means a tenth of a second. Probably even less because it’s not a linear progression.”
Ferrari believe the penalty handed down to Red Bull noy harsh enough
The former Sauber manager explained that the time that cannot be used in the wind tunnel was probably used to scrutinize other areas of the single-seater that are very sensitive in terms of lap time gain. Like for example the one that refers to the weight. An aspect that is particularly close to Adrian Newey’s heart given that he presented a single-seater that falls within the minimum mass limits identified by the technical regulations after the previous model, the award-winning RB18, started off very overweight.
Frederic Vasseur, therefore, argues that the penalty has already been amply compensated by the Anglo-Austrian professionals and that there will be no further consequences for Red Bull which will be able to count on a large advantage that was already revealed last year. “I’m not saying Red Bull didn’t do a good job, I’m not looking for any excuses. However, if you ask me if the penalty was soft, my answer is yes ”.
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However, the head of Ferrari’s sports management expresses a line of consistency in consideration of the fact that already last year, when he was managing the Swiss team, he had expressed himself stating that the sanction was very mild compared to what Red Bull had done. The minor breach of 1.7 million dollars, according to the managers of the medium-small range teams, is equivalent to the budget necessary to develop a single-seater during a racing season.
That’s why someone believed that the sanction imposed on the reigning world champions would not change the balance. Also because the ancillary penalty, i.e. the one that provides for the payment of a hefty fine, does not contemplate that this figure is reversed from the budget cap, but that it can be scraped together from other company departments.
And a solid, sprawling and well-defined reality like Red Bull has no problem putting together a small sum which in the end doesn’t even go into the accounts of the other teams, but goes towards contributing to the Fédération Internationale de Automobile’s yearly budget.
Red Bull responds to Ferrari
Chris Horner’s reply arrived in a very normal game of roles. In the previous days he already had to defend himself from the accusation leveled against his team by George Russell according to which they were hiding so as not to reveal the true potential of the RB19 car to avoid attracting morbid looks of the FIA.
“Fred Vasseur’s comments? I think everyone is free to have an opinion”, Christian Horner said in a recent interview for Sky Sports UK. “The team did a great job over the winter, also considering the limited time we had to develop this car. Naturally this will have an impact throughout this season and the next one therefore, having the results of only three races available, I think it is still extremely premature to evaluate 2023″.
According to Red Bull’s team principal, the world championship duel is still largely open because his rivals are not sitting around idly by. “We’ve heard of big updates for both Ferrari and Mercedes, so we’re not taking anything for granted. We are focused on ourselves to do the best job possible with the limitations we have. With the penalty it is difficult, we got it and we are applying ourselves in the best possible way to overcome it”.
For now, the duel between Red Bull and Ferrari is only in the media because on the track the two cars, given the performance differences, are very rarely close to each other and when they are, the RB19 doesn’t have too many problems taking a single bite of the SF-23. But the fact that Milton Keynes are strongly hitting out to repel the accusations that arrive, in turn, from Brackley and Maranello, is indicative of how, basically, there is the fear that the updates predicted to arrive on the respective single-seaters could spice up a championship that until is proving to be rather boring.
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