According to F1 journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm, Red Bull could face its toughest challenge this season, not from traditional rivals like Mercedes and Ferrari, but from 2023 surprise package Aston Martin.
Red Bull came out of the traps flying in 2023 with a 100% winning record after three rounds of racing this season. While they appear to be a safe bet for both world championships as we head into F1’s Azerbaijan GP of 2023, the biggest question left hanging in the air is who could emerge as their biggest rival on track.
Ferrari is already struggling with the reliability of the SF23, and Mercedes has admitted that it got its concept car wrong with the W14. However, Aston Martin seems to have hit the mark with the development direction they took with the AMR23, and the Silverstone team could still have more aces up its sleeve.
When asked to highlight the team best placed to battle Red Bull this season on the latest episode of The Race F1 podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm chose Aston Martin. He said:
“One thing I would say about Aston Martin at this point is that when the aerodynamic test restriction handicap system was devised, it was done with a long-term impact in mind, in which it would gradually bring out the marker teams from back or lower midfield or deep behind the bigger teams, however you want to see it.”
Mitchell-Malm added:
“So, over time, it would allow the teams that have performed worse to slowly catch up with the teams that are only being capped in terms of development and performance.”
Aston Martin’s ‘development ability’ could be a big factor in the fight against Red Bull, according to an F1 journalist
The fact that Aston Martin has additional scope and development capacity could be a major factor in the battle against Red Bull in the current 2023 F1 season, according to F1 journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm.
In the aforementioned episode of The Race F1 podcast, Mitchell-Malm explained how finishing seventh in qualifying played into Aston Martin’s head. This is doubly significant considering Red Bull has the least amount of ATR allocation on the grid for being defending champions and for being penalized for breaching F1’s cost cap in 2021.
Mitchell Malm said:
“When that was devised, nobody imagined that a team that would finish seventh in the championship one year, and therefore have 100% of the baseline ATR allocation (wind tunnel time and CFD elements), would suddenly would be the second. best team on balance at the start of next season. So these things only work in six-month cycles.”
The journalist added:
“If that’s how it is at the end of June, then Aston Martin will have a much smaller ATR allocation. But as it stands now, in April, Aston Martin has much more development capacity than Red Bull has.”
Aston Martin has already managed to rack up more points from three races in 2023 than in all of 2022. They could be on their way to having the best season so far in the history of the Silverstone team.
Will that be enough to defeat Christian Horner and his giant Red Bull in qualifying when all is said and done? Only time will tell.