Two times world champion Fernando Alonso believes there isn’t a team on the grid who has matched Red Bull in any competitive element so far this year.
Red Bull are on a record-breaking run of consecutive wins which stretches back 15 rounds to the final race of last season. Max Verstappen broke the record for the longest uninterrupted winning run by a driver at the Italian Grand Prix last week.Alonso is the closest of Verstappen’s rivals from another team to him in the drivers’ championship, but is almost 200 points behind. Red Bull’s domination of the season is a consequence of them being stronger than their rivals in every area of their game, said Alonso.
“I think both Red Bull and Max are connected this year,” he said. “They are outstanding in everything they do.
“Red Bull has the fastest car, are taking care of the tyres better than others. They have the best starts, they have the best pit stops. They are the best in every area that you could wish. The best top speed, the best low-speed performance, the best DRS delta. So there is not one single aspect of that car that can be matched at the moment for anyone.”
The same also goes for Verstappen’s advantage over his rival drivers, said Alonso.
“With Max it’s a little bit the same thing. He is the best in qualifying, he’s the best in the race, he’s the best in battling.
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“He’s the best at pit stops,” Alonso added, “because pit stops, it’s true that two seconds is the record and Red Bull does always the fastest pit stops and the mechanics are doing a great job, but also the driver needs to do his part there and never make a mistake with the position of the car, these kind of things.”
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has praised Verstappen’s ability to keep errors to a minimum over the past two years. Alonso agreed the Red Bull driver is “doing nothing wrong” at the moment.
“So the two together are just incredible and breaking all these records of victories and things,” he added. “And let’s see what the others can do and what we can do to get to that level.“
Red Bull’s supremacy has prompted speculation they could become the first team ever to win every single grand prix in a season. Team principal Christian Horner admitted that after winning all 14 grand prix so far this year, expectations are growing that they can complete a perfect season.
“One day we’re going to get beaten,” he said. “That’s inevitable and guaranteed. It’s just a question of when. Obviously we want to make the ‘when’ as far away as we can.
“I think that with every weekend that goes past, there becomes more expectation to keep this amazing run of results. To think that we’ve won all 14 grands prix, 24 of the last 25 grands prix we’ve managed to win as a team. And it’s quite incredible that we’ve managed to keep this momentum going as long as we can.”
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2023 F1 season
- Monza “frustrating” for Alonso but Aston Martin expect better form in coming races
- F1 changed rules to stop Mercedes in 2021 but we won’t ‘cry foul’ now – Wolff
- McLaren will bring ‘follow-up to Austria upgrade’ before focusing on 2024 car
- Magnussen explains why his driving style rarely works with the Haas VF-23
- Vasseur impressed Verstappen has ‘not done a single mistake over two seasons’
RR
11th September 2023, 12:09
It seems Alonso would like to replace Perez at RB. Then set about a subversive dismantling of Max.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
11th September 2023, 13:05
Yeah, he wants to drive the Red Bull.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
11th September 2023, 12:15
This is why if anyone wants to challenge Max, he needs to have significant car pace advantage, otherwise Max is going to dominate like he did last 2 years.
Fritz
12th September 2023, 12:40
All hail the Great dutch hype! Max uber alles! By con or by grift. All is fair in the land Muhammed “ain’t no woman smarter than man” Sulayem.
What do you call a dutch driver whos been gifted his first wdc?
Won his second wdc with a car specced from a costcap breach commonly known as cheating.
And for his upcoming wdc has had no competition other than what his teammate was allowed to?
Suggestions
Zann (@zann)
11th September 2023, 12:57
I can’t understand how after all this time, year after year, with it all filmed on TV, with the same kind of equipment and people, nobody can do their pitstops! It’s as though the others all do their hundreds of practices practising doing it not quite right. Or something!
AlanD
12th September 2023, 3:32
Zann, do you mean nobody can do pit stops as fast as Red Bull? I think the TV hype might have misled you. Red Bull are pretty good, but they are not always the fastest. In the first 14 races this year, Red Bull have had the fastest stop in seven races, Ferrari in four, and McLaren in three, and in 2022, Red Bull had the fastest stop in 10 out of 24 races.
DHL run a pitstop performance competition, and award points for a driver’s fastest pit stop on the same scale as race points are awarded. The really surprising stat for 2023 is that Mercedes are down in seventh, beating only Williams, Alpha Tauri, and Haas. The margins are pretty small though. At Monza, the top ten pit stop times were
Norris, McLaren, 2.13 seconds
LeClerc, Ferrari, 2.32
Perez, Red Bull, 2.35
Lawson, AlphaTuri, 2.51
Verstappen, Red Bull, 2.54
Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 2.63
Russell, Mercedes, 2.66
Ocon, Alpine, 2.69
Piastri, McLaren, 2.77
Hamilton, Mercedes, 2.83
Pit stop time alone is misleading. What really matters is time spent in the pit lane. Some drivers attack the pit lane better than others, or get out of their box with less wheelspin. The boxes at the start and end of the lane get a small benefit because their cars can straightline into or out of their box. A fast stop isn’t much good if the team has timed it badly and you follow in a slower car in the approach, or the lollipop man has to hold you for half a second while another car passes.
That guy
12th September 2023, 6:26
I think it’s even more than the whole pitlane in- and outtime, I think you should look at the in- and outlaps too. In my opinion, that’s where the differences are made.
MacLeod (@macleod)
12th September 2023, 8:02
+1 Max really gains a lot in the in- and outlaps.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
11th September 2023, 13:12
Here comes Alonso echoing Leclerc and Hamilton.
MacLeod (@macleod)
11th September 2023, 13:53
I think he wanted to say: in a row 14 GP of the 24 GP from the last 25 GP,
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th September 2023, 16:44
It’s not alonso who said that, it’s horner!
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
11th September 2023, 18:31
@esploratore1 oddly enough, both of them said it ;-) In Alonso’s complete quote, he said it.
RH
11th September 2023, 13:22
He’s not wrong. Hope he’s the chosen one to end their streak though. Would be great to see others get a few wins.
Coventry Climax
11th September 2023, 15:36
No. You think it would be great to see others win. And so do I by the way.
But in terms of greatness, it would actually be ridiculously great if they won everything for the rest of the season, and next season too.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th September 2023, 16:47
I see nothing great with that, it’s just a result of the better reliability nowadays and incredibly boring.
RH
11th September 2023, 17:01
Boring yes but should they win all races I’ll look back at races they could have lost – Monaco, Zandvoort etc and appreciate how they didn’t lose even those races.
It’s a very easy thing to win the titles this year. What’s impressive is not losing a single event while doing so.
RH
11th September 2023, 17:00
Well I agree. If they do a clean sweep it would be a record that someone can only match, not better.
Edvaldo
11th September 2023, 13:41
That’s the truth.
Red Bull has been the best managed team for quite some time, some good 10 or 12 years already.
They probably made some mistakes here and there that cost some wins (Monaco 2016 comes to mind) but compared to other teams, that’s nothing.
Coupled with one of the best cars ever produced and already one of the best drivers, that’s what we get.
Others have a lot of catch up to do.
MacLeod (@macleod)
11th September 2023, 13:56
Their starts could be beter but is hard due their suspension not heating up the tyres like the rest. If they could fix that then it becomes scary. But topspeed isn’t anymore in RB best Ferrari and Mercedes havemore topspeed nowdays.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
11th September 2023, 14:00
@macleod
I do believe that heating up the tyres quicker will also lead to faster degrading. So it is a trade-off. Look at Haas for example, very quick on one lap but lagging behind in races.
RH
11th September 2023, 14:04
It’s hard to compare their top speed relative to others as they never ran a proper low downforce spec wing unlike Merc/Ferrari.
At Spa they had their low medium wing and at Monza a trimmed version of the same wing.
Ferrari is the only team that is comparable in a straight line but they lost the balance of last year’s car in the corners.
Merc isn’t there.
Electroball76
11th September 2023, 14:10
Talented as this rookie may be, I don’t think RB are interested in signing Aston’s Number 2 driver..
melanos
12th September 2023, 1:02
RBR might exchange him for their own #2 driver Max. Would Lance and Max be a balanced act at AM?
MacLeod (@macleod)
12th September 2023, 8:05
If i saw how Lance was owned at the Ferrari Summergame 2014 i think Lance goes playing tennis right away.
MichaelN
11th September 2023, 14:29
Relatively? Maybe there’s a case to be made. They’re very far ahead. But in modern F1 advantages are locked in for such a long time that a lot of these measuring sticks of success become fairly meaningless, or at the very least unsuited for comparisons to other eras.
F1 sure is lucky the engine manufacturer teams agreed to an engine development freeze and a near complete specified engine regulation for 2026. Who really cares about engines anyway? It’s motorspo… oh right. Alpine, Ferrari and Mercedes have only themselves to blame for their incompetence; both politically and engineering wise.
George.be
11th September 2023, 15:19
Since the engines are close* to each other performance wise, it makes sense to free up resources to build the ’26 spec engines.
This isn’t 2014 where a token system locks a 10% advantage for a single engine manufacturer, who had it seemed, the right to block their customers of using the same engine mappings.
*Except for the Alpine, which was obvious in Italy.
I think the gains on engine performance would be marginal anyway, or non-existent if they fall under a budget limitation.
Prab
11th September 2023, 16:26
Alonso is spot on here.
I am so glad that we have such good drivers and they appreciate each other as well. F1 is in a good place and I am pretty sure RedBull’s dominance will end in 2 years (yes I am ready to wait).
Norris, Russell, Albon, Piastri, Hamilton, LeClerc, Sainz, Alonso, Verstappen & Ricciardo, I mean the grid is pretty special right now and they are all great personalities as well.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th September 2023, 16:51
I don’t think f1 is in a good place:
1) Dominance never seen before
2) Inability to race on a considerably wet track any more
3) Gimmicks like sprint races (which I prefer to practice, but they’re not generally liked)
Like others said here, a lot of people stopped watching since red bull became so dominant.
AlanD
12th September 2023, 3:50
Esplatore, good points. We’ve often had dominant seasons, but usually there has been rivalry between drivers in the dominant team, and the cars hadn’t been quite so bulletproof as this generation.
I’d say they have an ability to race on a lot of dry tracks too, and there is too much dependence on DRS to give the illusion of racing. Perhaps DRS would be better if the DRS advantage cut out once cars were side by side, more like the slip streaming effect, but it is silly on some tracks where a car without DRS has to watch his opponent sail off into the distance.
Yes, sprint races are a total gimmick. They don’t provide any significant alternative to the full race. None of the current cars or drivers are any better on one format compared to the other. Perhaps if the sprint race was run in revesrse grid order it would create a more interesting racing challenge.
AlanD
12th September 2023, 4:10
that should say “an IN-ability to race on a lot of dry tracks too”
Mayrton
12th September 2023, 9:47
I do partially agree. I feel more are catching on since there is a superstar. You see the same thing in Tennis or other sports. Periods of an athlete dominating attracts viewers. And its not like its the first overall dominant period. We are only 2 years in the current one which was preceded by an 8 (!) year period.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
11th September 2023, 18:38
@prab Well, Alonso is not really praising as much as he’s wondering how this came about. He’s upset because there’s no way he can win a race at Aston Martin as the Red Bulls could turn off the engine, glide, in the slipstream of the other 20 cars and probably win the race.
He wants to race for Red Bull but they won’t give him a chance.
That’s 4 years of dominance with Verstappen.
@esploratore1
yeah, I think that’s Alonso’s point
Jogo
11th September 2023, 17:01
No Nando no this is so not right
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
11th September 2023, 18:46
I don’t think anyone will be surprised that I agree with the Great Man but if we break it down it’s hard to argue:
Best number 1 driver – Max
Best car out the box – RB
Best development – their advantage is no less than it was this time last year
Strategy – rarely make errors
Wet weather driving – Max
Best overtaker – Max
Reliability – a marginal consideration but still impressive in race trim
Team dynamic – Perez is both winning and in second place
Pit Stops – always competitive
I’m struggling to think of a weakness in Max or the car for the past number of seasons. As a Ferrari and Aston fan it pains me to say it but this is Schumi levels of total dominance in every element of the sport and frankly, they deserve to be commended on an legendary success.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
11th September 2023, 21:24
Verstappen in particular has just taken things to another level. Even at the height of Lewis’ rein he’d have the occasional off weekend (like Monaco ’21) but I can’t remember the last time Max has had a genuinely poor weekend. His relentless consistency is bizarre and it feels inevitable that he’ll just win every race for the rest of this season. The only way I can see him dropping a win is if he’s taken out by a competitor outside of his control. On talent and consistency alone, he’s untouchable at the moment. I imagine this is what it was like watching Jim Clark race but in much more reliable machinery!