Red Bull have gotten off to a flawless start in F1 2023, winning the first eight races of the season to put themselves in a commanding position as they seem to cruise to back-to-back championships. But director of the FIA's single-seater division Nikolas Tombazis predicts that Red Bull's reign at the top of Formula One will end as soon as the rest of the field catches up to them. Max Verstappen's margin of victory in Canada was indeed greatly reduced after Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari all launched opening major shots at Red Bull in the development war. However, his final buffer of nine and a half seconds over Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, including a Safety Car period, shows the scale of the challenge still ahead. The FIA's new ground effect rules were supposed to level the playing field by capping budgets and adjusting how much time each team could spend in the wind tunnel, but instead Red Bull has gotten a head start and is now invincible up top.
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F1: What did the FIA Director say?
Tombazis claims this is only temporary, and with Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari squabbling amongst themselves and the group behind Red Bull being so competitive, he predicts Red Bull will eventually join this fight, maybe within the next few months.
The Canadian Grand Prix was a turning point for Aston Martin and Mercedes, as both teams were able to narrow the gap on Red Bull. Although Saturday's challenging weather conditions caused the starting order to be all over the place, the traditional top three finished on the podium.
For the Silverstone Grand Prix, Mercedes confirmed significant updates to the W14, making it just a matter of time until other teams caught up to Red Bull.
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F1: Mercedes to Bring Big Updates for W14
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said that the team will bring revised versions of the W14 to the British Grand Prix. With a double podium result in Spain and another podium for Lewis Hamilton in Canada, Mercedes has moved up to second in the Constructors' standings after abandoning the zero sidepod concept in Monaco.
After almost 18 months of hardship since the introduction of the ground-effect cars at the beginning of 2022, Mercedes knew in Bahrain at the opening of the season that it needed to alter its course of action. During the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes debuted their new front suspension, floor, and sidepods, however it was hard to tell whether this was the best strategy due to the shape of the track.
Although Russell had a terrible race (he hit the wall on lap 12 and had to pull out on lap 55 owing to brake problems), Hamilton still managed to finish third. Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin finished second.
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