Max Verstappen and Red Bull stole the spotlight this year with their extraordinary season and the Formula 1 community can’t help but lose their minds trying to figure out how Red Bull managed to do so. Red Bull broke Mercedes’s record of most wins by a team in a season with 21 out 22 race wins.
Max Verstappen may have won almost every other race during his 2023 charge, but there were certain aspects that remain untouched by F1 media still. The fact that Charles Leclerc was able to grab many poles in the latter half of the season hasn’t been highlighted enough. But for a certain ex-champion, these highlights matter a lot.
Jacques Villeneuve claims Verstappen’s 2023 triumphs not perfect
Jacques Villeneuve has always been a Max Verstappen supporter and he doesn’t shy away from promoting the Dutch talent. Villeneuve doesn’t take any criticism against the Red Bull ace lightly and slams down any kind of biased opinions. Jacques however, chose to disagree with public opinion and went on to claim that Red Bull wasn’t as dominant as Mercedes in their golden era.
Jacques’s analogy was developed based on the fact that Red Bull only took 12 out 22 pole positions during the current season and the fact that almost every pole they had, was within one tenth of a second from the other teams. Villeneuve compared this to Mercedes’ dominance, when they used to be half a second faster than the rest of the field.
“Red Bull is not that far ahead at all. All the poles they took were by one-tenth or half-a-tenth. Very close! That is not dominance. It doesn’t resemble the Mercedes years, where they were half a second ahead of everyone,” were his words during an interview.
Delving further it can be considered a fair point to oppose Red Bull domination theories considering the fact that Mercedes took 15 out 16 pole positions in 2020.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz denied Red Bull’s quest for a flawless season
Ferrari were the only constructor that managed to stop the onslaught of Bulls in Singapore and didn’t let them get away with 100% race wins in 2023. Ferrari won in the SingaporeG P, courtesy of Carlos Sainz and the persistent issues in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car. Carlos Sainz took advantage of the pressing failure in RB19 and took the second victory of his career.
He was hyped up post race and went on to expresses himself on his Twitter handle, congratulating his team for the wonderful race.
“Incredible weekend. We managed it to perfection, controlling the pace the entire race. The team deserves this win for the enormous work they have done both here and in Maranello. This one for them and for the Tifosi! On to Suzuka!”, he wrote.
It wasn’t for long though, and Max Verstappen came back to his winning ways in Suzuka.
Carlos Sainz recently put forth his demands from the next season’s car and he seems to be calm headed about the upcoming season.
What are some suggestions you would have for Ferrari and do you think the Prancing Horses might just make a comeback next year against a determined Max Verstappen?
