Someone other than Verstappen as world champion? "Very unlikely"

Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen are the towering favourites to grab the world title in 2023. During the test day, Verstappen looked very comfortable in his RB19 and despite the 25-year-old Dutchman not running on the softest tyres and thus not topping the timesheet, everyone at Sky Sports agrees: it will be hard to stop Verstappen.

Damon Hill does not rule out the possibility that a team will overtake Red Bull, but he does not consider the chances of it to be high. "They can stop him but they are going to have to do something extraordinary. He is on a roll, Red Bull are on a roll, they came out of the blocks with the new regulations absolutely in the sweet spot."

Martin Brundle agrees with Hill, although he does point out that Formula 1 is facing its longest season ever and has only driven at one circuit this year. Bahrain is not very tough on the rear tyres and has particular characteristics that may just be favourable to Red Bull. "But a good car is a good car."

Can Verstappen be trounced in 22 weekends?

The former Formula One driver sees that Verstappen's confidence is high. "I think he'll be hard to beat. Will he be unbeatable? You've got to remember that in two of the first three races last year he didn't score any points, and still he absolutely dominated the world championship, so he'll take some beating," Brundle said.

Chandhok does not think Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin or any other team is going to be able to make things difficult for Red Bull over a full season. "Very, very unlikely. I think they've got momentum on their side, Max is driving better than ever before - confidence combined with the experience of being a double world champion now, I think it's going to be very difficult to stop them."