F1: Verstappen and Leclerc favored over Hamilton/Russell

Speaking via his Twitch stream, former Williams and Ferrari team manager Peter Windsor sees Verstappen as the strong favorite to make it three in a row in 2023, but sees more scope for improvement at Ferrari and Mercedes as F1 enters the second season of the ground effect regulations.

He said: “As far as how [Ferrari] will go in 2023, I’m not sure whether that is in the hands of either Charles Leclerc or Freddy Vasseur. It’s in the hands, ultimately, of the technical team.

“No matter how much the new coach can say, ‘we’ve all got to work hard, we’ve got to focus on this, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that’, ultimately it comes down to talent and it comes down to brainpower.

“It doesn’t come down to resources, it doesn’t come down to money. It comes down to talent and brainpower, which is why Red Bull are as good as they are because it’s ultimately Adrian Newey’s design team that creates that car.

“So how good a car will the technical department at Ferrari create in 2023 based on what they had in ’22 and bearing in mind the regulation changes are relatively small, and we’re fixed now on power units? The logical thing to say is that Ferrari will be a bit nearer Red Bull, probably.

“Red Bull are pretty near the ceiling [of the regulations] and Ferrari and Mercedes are going to get somewhere near Red Bull because Red Bull haven’t got a lot more scope with which to play. They’re just about at the limit of what you can do in these regulations. That’s the way I see it.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of France at Circuit Paul Ricard on July 22, 2022 in Le Castellet, France. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

“So I think it’ll be more competitive. I don’t imagine in a million years that Ferrari will have a better car race in, race out than Red Bull, but I think it’ll be a car that will be quite capable of winning races, certainly.

“How many races? I would guess six, maybe Sainz will win a couple of those. But I’d be surprised if they win more than six because I think Mercedes is going to win races as well, more races. So I think they’ll have a pretty good year and it’ll be fun to watch.

“If you wanted an outside bet, I guess ‘Charles Leclerc to be World Champion’ isn’t a bad bet to have.

“I’d put more money on that than I would on Lewis – or George for that matter. But I think, right now, it would be weird not to think about Max winning again.”