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
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