Top Speed Ranking from 2023 F1 testing: Ferrari recovers gap to Red Bull. Top Speed Ranking from 2023 F1 testing.

Top speed used to be Red Bull’s biggest weakness. The cars from Milton Keynes have traditionally been among the slowest on the straights. Also a decade ago when they were taking race wins and world titles. There were many explanations. Red Bull justified this situation due to a power deficit of its engines. The competition claimed that Adrian Newey over-engineered his cars and paid the price in the form of more drag.

That all changed in one fell swoop in 2022. Suddenly the Red Bull set the tone on the straights. The ground effect cars prohibited over-development, although the Red Bull RB18 was still the car with the greatest car height in the rear. The Honda engine, on the other hand, allowed no more excuses. It was on par with Mercedes and Ferrari.

Air resistance at the top of the specifications
Red Bull’s good top speed forced Ferrari to react, which eventually led to the Maranello team no longer being a real opponent in the second half of the previous Formula One season. In trying to shrink the wings and generate more downforce from the floor, Scuderia Ferrari went a step too far. The downforce became unstable. With the W13, Mercedes simply put too much trust in the data from the wind tunnel. Depending on the track, the Silver Arrows lost between half a second and a full second to Red Bull.

This winter, in addition to weight savings, reducing air resistance was at the top of the specification for all teams. The result could already be seen in Bahrain. The ten cars were separated at the measuring point on the main straight by just 5.8 km/h. Last year the differences were up to 15 km/h. The best value of a team is used. This ensures that a high engine mode and a lap with open DRS are included in the comparison.

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Mercedes is waiting for a new wing
Red Bull still led the rankings at 326.9 km/h, but Ferrari was close behind the leader at 326.6 km/h. Williams is traditionally strong on the straights, which is underlined by the third place (324.8 km/h) in this ranking. At the lower end we find McLaren at 322.0 km/h and Mercedes at 321.1 km/h.

Mercedes already expects some improvement for the first round of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled to take place next weekend. A new rear wing is on the way. The engineers admitted that during the winter pre-season testing sessions, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were still driving with a version that built up too much drag for the Sakhir circuit.

McLaren will have to wait a little longer. Team boss Andrea Stella admitted that they had missed their targets in terms of aerodynamic efficiency. McLaren awaits its first upgrades that should transform the MCL60 in the long term.

F1 Bahrain Testing 2023: Top Speeds