'Think there's even more potential in Mercedes now than in Red Bull'
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- Toby McLuskie
Ralf Schumacher would not be surprised if Red Bull Racing actually manages to win all 23 Grands Prix this season. The former Formula 1 driver sees an unbeatable machine in the Red Bull-MaxVerstappen combination, although he thinks the Austrian team could have a few more difficult weekends later in the season.
The RB19 is currently so dominant on Sundays that no team is even close. The 2023 car of Verstappen and Sergio Perez is tremendously good on tyres, making stints much longer than those of the competition. It is closer in qualifying, but on Sundays Red Bull makes up for any start from, say, the third row of the grid without any problems for now.
"However, there will also be times when not everything goes so smoothly, even Red Bull can make mistakes and the other teams will get closer together as the season progresses," Schumacher warns in his column for the German branch of Sky. "We are also talking about the Max Verstappen factor. Sergio Perez has the same car and he has not done well. Red Bull and Verstappen are doing great."
Red Bull vs Mercedes again later in 2023?
Mercedes was on the podium with two drivers for the first time this season and on top of that, Aston Martin was passed in the constructors' championship. The updates to the W14(B) seem to be working well. Whereas Aston Martin was the second force in the first races of the year, Schumacher thinks Mercedes has now taken over that position.
"Mercedes has the best chance to thwart Verstappen here and there as the season progresses. The new car is very new now, so there will be some potential. The question will be how much more money Mercedes can spend on further development. I think there is even more potential in it than in Red Bull. There will also be updates, but I imagine we will soon see really exciting races at the top again," said the 47-year-old German.