Is anyone ready to challenge Red Bull? Team-by-team F1 testing review

2023 F1 season

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In less than a week’s time, the first points of the 2023 Formula 1 world championship will have been awarded in Bahrain.

To prepare for F1’s longest-ever season, the 10 teams and 20 drivers have only been afforded a single three-day test – at the circuit where they will race next weekend.

As ever, it is near-impossible to establish any kind of ranking of the teams from how each of them chose to spend their three days of track time. But that does not mean that some teams will not be feeling more encouraged than others about their new cars heading into a whole new season.

Here is your guide to how testing went for all ten Formula 1 teams – and how they each feel about their own performance during the pre-season.

Red Bull

Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test

Combined testing laps: 413 – 2,235km (5th)
Max Verstappen: 1’32.837 (11th) – 204 laps (10th)
Sergio Perez: 1’30.305 (1st) – 209 laps (9th)

It’s a good life, being a member of the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. Reigning double world champions. Winners of 30 of the last 50 grands prix contested. And after pre-season testing, the clear favourites to kick off 2023 as the team to beat once more.

The champions burst out of the gate with supreme confidence. It was warranted, as they went quickest two out of the three days of running including Sergio Perez setting comfortably the fastest time of the test on the final day – better than Charles Leclerc’s pole time from last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

But the most ominous signs came at the start of the second day. Verstappen casually strolled out of the garage and immediately beat his best time from the first day with his very first timed lap. Such instant speed, coupled with no notable reliability problems, will strike genuine dread into the hearts of Ferrari, Mercedes and the rest of the field before the season has even begun.

What they said:

A very successful end to the test with another day of uninterrupted running. It has been a positive three days for the team, but there are always areas for improvement, and the focus will be on trying to extract more performance gains before next week.
Gianpiero Lambiase, head of race engineering

Ferrari

Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test

Combined testing laps: 417 – 2,256km (3rd)
Charles Leclerc: 1’31.024 (4th) – 199 laps (13th)
Carlos Sainz Jnr: 1’31.036 (5th) – 218 laps (6th)

Ferrari could hardly have been happier with their 2022 pre-season, following which they stormed to their first win in over two years at the opening race and took a second just two rounds later.

But all that momentum faded away over the rest of the year and Mattia Binotto forfeited his position as team principal for it. Now, Frederic Vasseur has assumed control of the team – but he won’t be feeling quite as confident about their chances of repeating their Bahrain Grand Prix success based on what he saw in testing.

Not that Ferrari endured a bad test – not by any means. Charles Leclerc finished his programme midway through Saturday with the fastest time anyone had put in up to that point. Team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr pointed out the team has made clear progress on improving its car’s straight-line performance, raising hopes that they will challenge Red Bull for kings of the speed trap this season.

As their title charge was derailed by reliability problems, three trouble-free days will have helped calm the pre-season nerves. However, Leclerc and Sainz want to win this season – not just races, but the championship. So being markedly slower than Red Bull on identical tyres in the final session will have done little to further boost their confidence – nor will the signs they have suffered more from tyre degradation than their closest rivals.

What they said:

“The main target was getting as much mileage under our belt as possible and we did that, although it’s also true that you always want to do more and have more time. But it’s the same for everyone. The mood in the team is perfect and we are in a good shape to start this long season.”
Frederic Vasseur, team principal

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Mercedes

George Russell, Mercedes, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test

Combined testing laps: 398 – 2,153 (7th)
George Russell: 1’31.442 (8th) – 178 laps (16th)
Lewis Hamilton: 1’30.664 (2nd) – 220 laps (4th)

After failing to fight for the championship for the first time in nine years in 2022, no team was more motivated, more determined and more eager to start the 2023 on the front foot than Mercedes. It did not work out entirely as they had hoped.

In 2022, Mercedes knew they were in trouble when they ran the W13 in the second test in Bahrain. Although their showing was much more encouraging in 2023, both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell openly admitted their team was not where they had ideally hoped to be coming into the season.

There were positives. Porpoising has been almost entirely eliminated from the new car, according to Russell, and Hamilton was indeed the closest driver to Perez’s overall fastest time of the final session. But unlike Red Bull and Ferrari, Hamilton and Mercedes had used the softest tyre compound, C5, to achieve it.

A hydraulic failure late on Friday was a concern, especially given that their immediate rivals appeared rock solid throughout the three days. But Hamilton’s complaints about the balance of his car will likely be the bigger concern for Mercedes heading into the start of the season. Russell highlighting how long the upcoming season will be is a clear sign he does not expect Mercedes to be in the fight for the win in the early rounds.

What they said:

“It’s clear that we still have work to do on car pace but today has given us a much more coherent picture of where we need to focus our efforts. We’ll be using the time ahead of next weekend to go through the data we’ve collected, and aim to extract a bit more lap time.”
Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director

Alpine

Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test

Combined testing laps: 353 – 1,910km (9th)
Esteban Ocon: 1’33.257 (20th) – 178 laps (15th)
Pierre Gasly: 1’32.762 (17th) – 175 laps (17th)

Last year’s ‘best of the rest’ team has one obvious goal for 2023 – try to close down the gap between them and the top three teams at the front of the field.

Will they feel confident of doing that based off their pre-season programme? It’s difficult to say. Not least of which when they ended the test as the ‘slowest’ of the ten teams based on the fastest times set by each over the three days. They also failed to cover 2,000km of running between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly – something every other team managed, bar McLaren.

Visibly, the A523 seems much stiffer than its peers on the Bahrain circuit. Ocon was seen locking up under braking a few times while in the car, conspicuously running wide at turn one during the final session.

Nonetheless, Ocon said he felt very happy with his new car’s long run performance. Alpine were also clearly uninterested in participating in any ‘glory runs’ to generate hollow buzz ahead of the season starting. And they’ve already revealed two updates will be on the car for the first race.

What they said:

“It’s been a very consistent and conservative pre-season test for the team where we’ve remained committed to our programme to ensure we are as best prepared as we can be for the season ahead.”
Otmar Szafnauer, team principal

McLaren

McLaren, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 312 – 1,688km (10th)
Lando Norris: 1’32.160 (13th) – 142 laps (19th)
Oscar Piastri: 1’33.175 (19th) – 170 laps (18th)

McLaren fans all over the world – it is now time to start worrying.

No team endured a more difficult three days in Bahrain than McLaren. So much so, it would be tempting to copy and paste the description of their pre-season from just 12 months ago.

McLaren spent less time on the track and more time in the garage than any of their rivals. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri logged the fewest laps of any driver except for Felipe Drugovich, who only took part in two half-day sessions.

Unlike in 2022, when a fundamental braking problem provided a clear impediment to their performance at the start of the season, McLaren’s problems were harder to determine. A lot of time was spent pulling apart the MCL60 to fortify some of its components before they failed, rather than responding to any actual problems which had struck their new car.

Team CEO Zak Brown was candid about how his team had missed some of its targets for the pre-season, setting expectations for the early phase of the season lower than they would have hoped. Reports that Norris was visibly frustrated at the end of the test quickly spread like wildfire on social media. It appears there are tough days ahead for the Woking team, at least until its first major upgrade arrives at the end of April.

What they said:

“I would say our objective through the season is to be a top four car. At the moment I would say we are not necessarily in this range.”
Andrea Stella, team principal

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Alfa Romeo

Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 402 – 2,175km (6th)
Valtteri Bottas: 1’30.827 (3rd) – 202 laps (11th)
Zhou Guanyu: 1’31.610 (10th) – 200 laps (12th)

Last year, Alfa Romeo were one of the surprises of the early season – despite having a regularly disrupted testing programme that limited track time for its two new drivers.

In 2023, however, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are heading into the start of the season much more prepared and positive than they were this time last year. After reliability was their Achilles’ heel throughout last year, both drivers were convinced that the C43 will be a clear improvement where they need it most.

Their three days were not without concerns. Zhou abandoned a practice start attempt late on day two with a suspected problem and Bottas stopped on track when his car slowed to a stop in the early session. But what was encouraging was how little time this trouble cost the team.

Bottas also claimed the new car was “50% better” with its handling than last season, putting his car third fastest ahead of the two Ferraris with help from the C5 tyres on the final day. Alfa Romeo will hope to emulate their 2022 and start racking up the points from the first race

What they said:

“We can be satisfied about these three days of solid work. We collected plenty of data and I feel we’ve prepared for the season as best as we could. Performance wasn’t yet our main aim: we didn’t focus on what the others were doing but simply looked at ourselves.”
Jan Monchaux, technical director

Aston Martin

Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 387 – 2,094km (8th)
Fernando Alonso: 1’31.450 (9th) – 270 laps (1st)
Felipe Drugovich: 1’32.075 (12th) – 117 laps (20th)

The most intriguing team of the 2023 pre-season? Aston Martin’s rivals certainly seemed impressed with their performance in testing.

The arrival of Fernando Alonso was enough to generate plenty of buzz around the launch of the AMR23 earlier in the month. But as Alonso regularly hovered in the top five on the timing screens over the three days, other teams began to take notice.

With no Lance Stroll to share the load, Alonso benefited from an extra session in the car to every other driver, naturally logging the most mileage as a result. Reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, who will step in if Stroll is declared unfit to race, got two sessions and well over 100 laps in the car which will prepare him well if needed.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner had to admit Aston Martin looked like they had made a “big step” from 2022. How big that step is remains to be seen, but Alonso was adamant that there was “a lot of potential left to unlock” from the new car. It could be a good time to be an Aston Martin fan.

What they said:

“We managed to complete our run plan and got a number of laps on the board with both drivers. The car ran reliably and again we managed to gather a lot of data. We are still getting to understand the car and learning about various operational and procedural matters, but we have made good progress.”
Tom McCullough, performance director

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Haas

Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 413 – 2,245km (4th)
Kevin Magnussen: 1’31.381 (7th) – 219 laps (5th)
Nico Hulkenberg: 1’32.466 (15th) – 196 laps (14th)

Haas’s 2023 pre-season has been a marked improvement over last year by virtue of the fact their car actually arrived on time to Bahrain this time around.

When it hit the track, the VF23 seemed bulletproof. Haas barely had a problem to note. Remarkably, they actually recorded more milage over three days than they had achieved across two full tests last pre-season.

Nico Hulkenberg says he immediately got back into the rhythm of driving a Formula 1 car again after almost a year since his last grand prix and nearly four years since his last full season. Kevin Magnussen completed a full race simulation, giving the team very useful data heading into next weekend.

The team’s reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi – who did not take part in the test this year – offered his assessment of where he believes the team may be come the opening round next weekend. “It’s hard to say, but I’d say out of the ten teams, [we’re] between seventh and maybe fifth,” Fittipaldi said. “Around that area.”

What they said:

“The whole team came here very well prepared – we did our homework – so when we arrived, we were ready to go, and you could see that. It’s difficult to say still but we are in the midfield, let’s see if we’re at the top or the end of the midfield but we’re now ready for the race next weekend.”
Guenther Steiner, team principal

AlphaTauri

Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 456 – 2,467km (1st)
Yuki Tsunoda: 1’31.261 (6th) – 210 laps (8th)
Nyck de Vries: 1’32.222 (14th) – 246 laps (2nd)

If there was a prize to be awarded to the most distance covered over pre-season testing, then AlphaTauri would be the winners. Yuki Tsunoda and new team mate Nyck de Vries put nearly 2,500km on the AT04 between them over the three days – nearly the distance from London to Istanbul.

Such early reliability is a huge boost for AlphaTauri, as so much data is invaluable for a smaller team. Yuki Tsunoda was able to conduct a full race simulation run on day two, while tests on the final day produced some interesting results that the team had not expected.

Despite Tsunoda posting the sixth-quickest time of the test, De Vries reported there were some “limitations” with the car’s handling – his wide experience of driving four different 2022 cars last year coming into use.

Ultimately, the team are modest in their aspirations for the 2023 season. Chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls said AlphaTauri “should be able to put up a fight with the midfield”.

What they said:

“Overall, this test has been very busy and challenging at times, but I’m very pleased to see some good progress being made in understanding our package and the car running very reliably.”
Jody Eggington, technical director

Williams

Logan Sargeant, Williams, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023 pre-season test
Combined testing laps: 439 – 2,375km (2nd)
Alexander Albon: 1’32.793 (18th) – 210 laps (7th)
Logan Sargeant: 1’32.549 (16th) – 229 laps (3rd)

Williams’ 2023 Bahrain pre-season test was a marked improvement over their three days in 2022 by simple virtue of the fact their FW45 did not catch fire once during the test.

But as well as remaining free of spontaneous combustion, Williams enjoyed a trouble-free test to kick off their 2023 campaign. In fact, only next-door neighbours AlphaTauri covered more laps.

Rookie Logan Sargeant could hardly ask to be better prepared for his grand prix debut, having pounded out 229 laps of the Bahrain circuit over the two days in which he got to drive the car. His mammoth 154 laps on Saturday was the second-highest of any individual driver: Verstappen did 157 on the opening day.

The team didn’t exactly set the timing screens alight, with both Albon and Sargeant sitting near the bottom of the order at the end of Saturday. However, no team gained as much lap time between last year’s Bahrain test and this week’s than Williams. An encouraging start to the James Vowles era.

What they said:

“In terms of mileage, we’ve had a very good three days. We’re definitely in a better place in comparison to this time last year, it’s just more about how far we can take it.”
Alexander Albon, driver

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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30 comments on “Is anyone ready to challenge Red Bull? Team-by-team F1 testing review”

    1. Took the word out of my mouth. Even if Mercedes have their car sorted out, or Aston are looking relatively quick, or any other hopefully down the pit lane… Red Bull have made themselves an advantage and even considering the development penalty from the cost cap breach they will have run away with the advantage.

      1. @The Dolphins Yes, they might’ve run away by when their handicap truly starts impacting their development, but another matter is how clearly. Hopefully, Ferrari & Mercedes could stay relatively close in points to maximize benefit.

  1. Commenters like you, @darryn, are what elevate this sports news site to the levels of distinguishness we all enjoy. Thank you for your valuable contribution, my son.

  2. For Bahrain next week? No. The Red Bulls are consistently the fastest car out there.

    I realize it’s testing, and times mean very little, but looking at the relative times over the three days may help:

    Mercedes improved dramatically from day 1 to day 3– 3.5 seconds for both drivers, whereas Red Bull showed a more modest increase over the three days (roughly 1.5 seconds, but it’s hard to say since day 1 was Max and day 3 was Sergio).

    Aston Martin was very fast day 1– but only 1.4s faster by day 3, and had dropped from 2nd to 9th with Alonso behind the wheel.

    Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas all improved about 3 seconds from day 1 to 3. But curiously, LeClerc and Sainz couldn’t match Valterri on day 3.

    If these rates of development continue, I could see Red Bull getting some stiff competition by Azerbaijan. Mercedes has already said they have a side-pod upgrade coming (which will continue their current slim pod philosophy).

    1. You’re reading way too much into it mate.

      Mercedes didn’t evolve 3 secs in 3 days. They didn’t even attempted a glory run on the first 2 days.

      I’m in doubt if you’re being ironic though.

      1. There isn’t much to go off of indeed and choosing the best single lap time is the wrong way to go about it imo. Red Bull set their best time on C3s while most of the rest did their best on the fastest C5s. I think the best overall indicator from testing is the average lap times during long runs, it’s most relevant for race pace. I don’t have that data and it won’t perfectly correlate either because no team shows their full potential in preseason. I think we can confidently say RB is well ahead at this point. I think Mercedes has proven they’re the best as far as season-long improvement goes. But that Merc will have to already be within like 0.5 seconds a lap come Saturday to have any hope of catching them in the championship. If they can work some serious magic then maybe, the best I can even hope for atm is a fight for a race win (Hamilton fanboy btw). I’m really hoping for a 3-way battle for 2nd in the constructors: Ferrari, Merc, and maybe Aston or Alfa?? I think those two teams have the best chance of jumping up from midfield to top 3-4 and that be exciting to watch!

    2. Mercedes side pod upgrade is more likely to be an abandonment of their design in favour of a Red Bull or Aston Martin idea. That would be funny to see, after all that Pink Mercedes hubbub, a Black Aston Martin!

    3. You’re not taking tyre compounds in to consideration. Mercedes set their fastest time of the softs, while Red bull and Ferrari did on the mediums. It’s far too early to read in to how much cars will develop over the season. The only thing we can predict is who’s going to be fast in Bahrain. Red bull is hands down the most hooked up, followed by Ferrari. Mercedes will probably be close to midfield than they will to Red bull.

      Look at the clip of inboard videos released by f1. That seemed to give me the most accurate representation of how hooked up the different cars are.

  3. Should be an easy 1-2 for red bull in the ope ner. I think Rb should have the advantage all the way to Barcelona, where hopefully Ferrari and Mercedes have upgrades that can cut the deficit. The red bull looked a league above every other car in the way it was lapping at the Bahrain circuit.

    Aston and Alfa looked like they could be leading the midfield battle from the get go. We need to see how Alpine and Mclaren respond.

    1. I think it’s difficult to disagree with this analysis based on what we have seen so far @todfod. I think RBR should be ahead for the first quarter of the season and then we may start to see Ferrari and Merc catch-up. These two could be very close.

      Neither Alpine or McLaren look in great shape at the moment and it could be that either Aston or Alfa lead the rest to begin with. Again though we are likely to see Alpine and McLaren respond later on.

  4. Honestly if they removed Zak Brown, McLaren would prove to be better

    1. Might be an unpopular opinion, but I thought Ron Dennis was a great team principal. He might not have been the easiest guy to work with, but he had great engineering prowess, knew what had an approach that can win championships.

      He definitely made mistakes, like handling Alonso and Hamilton in 2007..and the blunder with Honda in 2015. But he knew what it took to win. Zak just makes sure Mclaren doesn’t embarrass themselves.. He doesn’t have a clue of how to turn Mclaren in to a winning outfit. This year Zak will really come under fire if he doesn’t finish P4 in the WCC

      1. @todfod I agree with what you’re saying. I’m pretty sure that he would have not let McLaren slide to its current position. He was right when he said that you could not win a championship without having a works PU, hence him wanting to stay with Honda, despite its issues.

      2. Don blunders were much more than Zak.

        1. Because Ron made risky decisions trying to win. Zak is basically just running a company. You don’t win championships that way

  5. Short answer: No
    Longer answer: Same, but things could change further into the season when the wind tunnel time handicap truly begins affecting in-season development.

  6. Obviously it’s been difficult to tell at this stage, but my expectations haven’t changed. I’m expecting RBR to have maintained or increased their clear advantages from last season and walk a huge lead in both championships. After that, Mercedes and/or Ferrari may start to “catch” them, but not with any realistic chance. RBR will be able to focus the vast majority of their development efforts on next season, and their “penalty” will have little to no effect.

  7. Testing lap times alone is considered to not be a real representation of the pecking order, and for instance last year Haas (with Mick) had the 2nd fastest lap time, but the way it went for Red Bull seems to be as clear as day that they are in a very good position.
    Yet in 2022 Ferrari managed to win the first one so I don’t rule out a similar surprise.

    It was a great testing for Aston Martin, not just because of Alonso (I think it’s clear he’s able to almost every time elevate the pace of the car) but Drugovich had good pace too.
    And most importantly most of the opinions from people watching trackside is that the car seems very stable and compliant. That is always good.

    I have to give a final note to Alpine because by mileage and pace alone they seem to be behind, but read many views that their long run pace was similar to Aston’s, that it was clear they were running with a detuned engine (don’t ask me why analysis know that) but what we know is that they only stick to C3 and harder tyres.
    They have an apparent bug update ready but personally it seems a bit of a waste to not test it before as it might not have the results expected, unless current testing confirmed their predictions and simulations.

    Red Bull VS Ferrari and who is really ahead of the midfield are the battles I anticipate for the first GP.
    If Mercedes are able to be in the mix at the top and other teams (Alfa, Haas also started well last season after solid testing) battling in the midfield, it will make things more interesting…

    One can only hope.

  8. Prepare for Mercedes 2014 dominance all over again. 1s clear of anyone else.
    As a Charles fan I hope I’m wrong but strong teams don’t drop the ball when they are on a roll. Only thing which can stop them is new regulations.

  9. Well lap times cant be used as a reference. What we should be looking at is 1. Was the car generally reliable. 2. Was the car balance easy to achieve. 3. Did the car correlate with what their simwork said the car should do. 4. Were the cars drivable at high speed corners as well at slow speed corners. And of cause with a pinch of salt driver feedback.

  10. I think Ferrari will be ahead in qualifying due to their engine power but they’ll again eat their tyres and fall back in the race. I expect Mercedes to be behind Ferrari and Red Bull on qualifying pace but probably close to Ferrari in race trim. I’m expecting a Red Bull win for Verstappen and anything less frankly would be a disaster for Red Bull given the advantage they carried into the year.

  11. Lots of speculation as it is fun. I dont mind how all will unfold, since I am sure it will be nice to just start racing again. Just hoping Mercedes is not in the mix since they’ve recently had their decade.

  12. It’s rather overstated that Ferrari’s 2022 “title charge was derailed by reliability problems”, as Leclerc had the same number of technical DNFs as Verstappen. The pace just wasn’t there. The early season problems for Red Bull flattered Ferrari, and even then it was apparent that Verstappen could win every race – except Australia – had things turned out slightly different. The enormous straightline speed advantage Red Bull had also made qualifying all but irrelevant. Following the Mercedes-requested mid-season rule change the Ferrari concept had run its course and by then couldn’t be fixed during the season.

    A new F1 rulebook leading to the most wins in a single season by one driver of all time is never a good look. Hopefully F1 doesn’t go from one era of boring and stat-inflating dominance to another. The only ones who can prevent that are the other teams, and realistically only Mercedes and Ferrari are serious competitors. Unless there’s another 2009-style ‘fix’ none of the other teams are going to be even close.

  13. I can’t get away from the feeling that RB have found some wrinkle in the regs that have allowed them to gain an advantage, or that they’ve managed to do something that is easily hidden from the scrutineers. I’ve thought it about a few teams in the last twenty years or so, and the most memorable were Ferrari with the Oil Trick, and Brawn Racing with their naughty behaviour which won them a championship.

    Every team looks for the trick every season, and as they say, “All’s fair in love and War” so have Adrian’s back room boys discovered a brilliant idea that so far no-one else has thought of ?

    If this upsets any RB Fans, have a look back through F1 history and see that it’s every team on the grid doing it at least once on their way through the seasons, and if they haven’t it isn’t for the want of trying.

    As for McLaren, the team I’ve loved all these years (since Bruce was alive), I’m disappointed once again in the new car, unless of course they were sandbagging, but what would be the point in hiding their light under a bushel at this stage of the season, right before race number one ?
    The team are surely better than this, so please guys, someone at the MTC must know how to fix it !

    1. They didn’t find any special trick, they just adapted to the regs better than others. After that, they built up on that and that is why they (seemingly) are still leading.

      Keeping regs stable, not changing them, is how you make the teams closer.

    2. It’s not a naughty trick if it’s within the rules. At worst, it’s exploiting a loophole, but generally it’s just a team doing better than its rivals at designing a car within the rules.

      If it’s outside the rules, it’s also not a naughty trick, it’s cheating (or at minimum “breaking the rules”, if it’s unintentional)

  14. I should point out that I don’t believe Zac is in any way responsible for any of the teams’ misfortunes over the last four or five years, he’s management with the emphasis on business and money.
    He’s not a designer or an engineer so doesn’t have any real impact on what the engineering side of McLaren shovels up for the new seasons, and I’d bet my last quid on the fact that he’s been through the Riot Act and back again trying to motivate everyone.

    I also seriously doubt whether Ron Dennis (one of my all time hero’s) could do anything right now, as he didn’t know what to do with McLaren when the Honda PU’s weren’t working a few years ago, if he did he wasn’t saying anything.
    They NEED a really good Design Director of AM Newey’s ilk to get them out of this trough they’re in.

  15. Otmar is American. There’s no way he said “programme.”

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