Red Bull look unstoppable but there is ONE race where they could falter

Red Bull celebrating the win of Max Verstappen in Spain — Photo: © LAT Images

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Red Bull look unstoppable but there is ONE race where they could falter

Red Bull are on course for a 2023 clean sweep of races

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 8 September 2023 20:57

As Max Verstappen rounded the Parabolica for the final time at the Italian Grand Prix en route to victory, there was only one thought. Could Red Bull really win every race this season?

For Verstappen it was business as usual taking his tenth consecutive race victory, beating Sebastian Vettel's Formula 1 record for consecutive wins

It's becoming a distinct possibility the more the season goes on that Red Bull could indeed make a clean sweep. This was a challenging race for the team, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz providing strong resistance for Verstappen, defending him brilliantly until he was finally passed on the 15th lap of the race.

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Indeed, those 14 laps led by Sainz were the most any other team has led during a single race in 2023, demonstrating just how dominant the RB19 has been for both Verstappen and Perez.

Ferrari's straight-line speed during Sunday's race was very impressive, allowing Sainz to defend down into turn one time and time again. But, once Verstappen was past Sainz, the overall pace of the Red Bull became clear, as the Dutchman started pulling away by around one second per lap.

In the other Red Bull, Perez himself was able to get past both Sainz and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc to finish second and bring home Red Bull's sixth one-two finish of the season, the most the team have ever managed in a single campaign.

For all of their fantastic seasons with Vettel and Mark Webber, and now Verstappen and Perez, Red Bull have never managed to finish first and second in the drivers' world championship.

Perez now has a 49 point lead over Fernando Alonso in third in the standings, and so you wouldn't bet against them sealing that one-two finish in 2023. The Red Bull juggernaut looks unstoppable.

Who, or what, can stop Red Bull?

Bahrain 2022 saw both Red Bull's having issues and not being able to finish the race

Well, current form would say that they absolutely can win every race. Stretching back into last season, Red Bull have now won 24 of the last 25 races, the only exception being George Russell's fantastic win in the Brazilian GP at the end of 2022.

Monza was the team's 15th victory in a row, no F1 team have ever managed that feat.

In 2023 alone, Verstappen has won 12 of the 14 races, with Perez claiming the other two.

The records keep on tumbling for Red Bull then, but to go a whole season winning every race would just be incredible.

The consistency to be able to fend off all other rivals across 22 completely different circuits, even in the fastest car, would be quite something, and who would bet against them right now?

Their closest challenger has looked like it might be Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. The 42-year-old Spaniard has looked rejuvenated in his new team, and has managed to get onto the podium seven times in the first 14 races.

Although not really challenging for the race win, there has been a couple of times that it has looked like he has bailed out of a move for the lead in order to be sure of a podium for his team.

As the season progresses, however, he may be more likely to make a dive down the inside of Verstappen or Perez as he attempts to win his first race since the Spanish GP in 2013.

On the other hand, the Aston Martin seems to have regressed in recent races, and Alonso's ninth position in Monza really was the best he could manage.

Other challengers have come and gone throughout the season, with McLaren looking most likely in Austria and at Silverstone to challenge the Red Bull's, Ferrari looking racy on a couple of occasions, including Monza, and Mercedes popping up on the podium fairly regularly throughout the course of 2023.

However, the fact that nobody has led more than 14 laps of a grand prix all season probably tells you all you need to know about Red Bull's challengers.

Perhaps the only thing that might stop them is that surely, despite how incredible the car has looked up until now, they will have reliability issues in at least one race, or a driver error that gives other teams a chance.

Even then, however, you can foresee a situation where Verstappen's engine blows as he is leading the race, but never mind Perez is in second to pick up the pieces anyway and take home the victory.

It really is looking ominous at this stage, and to give F1 fans looking for a change some hope, we have looked ahead to future races to see where the Red Bull might struggle against its competitors.

Where might they struggle the most?

George Russell was the last Mercedes driver to win a Grand Prix, at the Brazilian GP in 2022

First things first, Monza looked like it could be the one. Ferrari had a car that was clearly very suited to the fastest circuit on the calendar.

Their straight-line speed was phenomenal, and their one lap speed on Saturday gave them a chance of beating the Red Bull's, qualifying first and third respectively.

They really did throw everything at trying to claim victory in front of their home fans, and they weren't too far away, with Verstappen finishing just over 11 seconds ahead of the two Ferrari's in the end.

Next time out in Singapore later in September, it may be Mercedes who are closest to the Red Bulls. Toto Wolff has already said he expects the car to be quick around the circuit, and if there's one thing Mercedes have been good at this season, it's maximising the performance of the car.

Their fifth and sixth place finishes in Monza in a car that was clearly lacking a lot of race pace was yet more evidence of how they've managed to climb up to second in the constructors' championship and be Red Bull's closest challengers, even if they haven't necessarily been that on the track.

You would imagine that they'll certainly be challenging Perez for the podium positions, just like Ferrari were in Monza, but can they challenge Verstappen for the win? It's looking unlikely unless something happens to Verstappen.

Then there's Brazil. The track that, despite Verstappen winning the last two world championships, he has not won there since 2019. Mercedes' only race win since 2021 came at Brazil, and they looked supremely quick there, both in 2021 and 2022.

However, their lack of pace at Monza may be evidence that they won't be quick at a similar track that has two very long straights intertwined with high-speed corners.

That then leaves Ferrari and McLaren, who have only managed to get on the podium six times between them in 2023 but have, on occasions, looked fast.

Ferrari have come home to take two of the last six victories at the Singapore GP, both when their car was being dominated by Mercedes in 2015 and 2019.

Mercedes themselves have won six of the last seven Japanese GP's, although this might not be too relevant given the fact they had a far-superior car during those years compared to now.

That probably leaves the unknown of the Las Vegas GP, then, which is on the F1 calendar for the first ever time, and is expected to be an extremely fast circuit, with average speeds similar to that of Monza.

Whether that will suit Red Bull's dominant car or Ferrari's brilliant straight-line speed that we saw at Monza remains to be seen.

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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