Ferrari and Mercedes overtaken by Aston Martin
Red Bull 9, Aston Martin 4, Ferrari and Mercedes 1: this is the tally in terms of podium finishes in the first five races of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, excluding the Baku Sprint. Red Bull missed only one podium finish in Australia due to a mistake made by Sergio Perez in qualifying, while Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso missed the podium only in Azerbaijan, coming very close. Meanwhile, Ferrari and Mercedes’ performance is disappointing, with only Charles Leclerc in the top three at the Baku City circuit and Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne. Red Bull have more than twice the total podium finishes of Aston Martin, which in turn “doubled” the Ferrari-Mercedes duo, despite coming from a seventh place in the 2022 Formula 1 Constructors’ standings.
It is an scenario that was unpredictable ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign that confirms what Christian Horner said after the Miami Grand Prix, namely, “where are Ferrari and Mercedes?” During the winter, Red Bull made a “normal” – in the team principal’s words – step forward by refining the 2022 project. Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes, stubbornly sticking to their own projects, have not kept up with Red Bull’s improvement, giving the team even more advantage compared to the end of 2022. At the moment, Aston Martin is the second force, thanks to a significant leap forward, due to the performance loss of Ferrari and Mercedes.
Marko’s curiosity
Helmut Marko echoed Christian Horner’s statement that the big absentees of this start of the season are Ferrari and Mercedes. The Red Bull team principal expects significant developments from its rivals, although Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his Ferrari counterpart Frederic Vasseur have both already put their hands up, underlining that they do not expect major changes to their respective cars following the planned upgrades.
“I am curious to see what upgrades Ferrari and Mercedes will bring to Imola and to see if there will be any improvement” – the words of Helmut Marko, as reported by the Austrian newspaper Osterreich – “because if they continue with these performances, they are already quite far behind.”
Regarding the fight for the title between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Helmut Marko does not believe that Checo can actually challenge the Dutchman for the championship: “It is clear that Verstappen is the favorite for the 2023 title. Perez is really strong on some city circuits like Baku, but in Miami, Verstappen gave a lesson to everyone. If he had started from pole position, it would have been a really boring race.”
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