Red Bull are 'CATCHABLE' insists top race engineer

Horner and Verstappen in 2023 — Photo: © LAT Images

Red Bull

Red Bull are 'CATCHABLE' insists top race engineer

Former Ferrari stalwart Rob Smedley brushed off the idea that Verstappen and Perez will take every win this season

Lauren Sneath

Tuesday 18 April 2023 12:33

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley has dismissed claims that Red Bull will win the season by a landslide, arguing that “they’re catchable”.

The engineer, who worked with Felipe Massa during his time at the Scuderia, also suggested that comments from the Mercedes team and Mercedes driver George Russell about Red Bull’s omnipotence “don’t ring true”.

Although the former engineer admitted that Red Bull were “possibly” a little further ahead than he had anticipated, he said: “But if you go back to when teams dominated dominated, it's not like they're out-qualifying teams by huge amounts, you know.

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“Teams need to find time and the drivers need to maybe find a little bit of time, and importantly, the track-side team needs to optimise the car, for all of these teams that are behind Red Bull – but they're catchable.

“They're definitely catchable in the qualifying sessions that we've seen up to now, they are definitely surmountable.

In the race, they have a strong car, there's no doubt about that. But again, I don't think that you can look at it and say it's all over, you know, and they can't be caught.”

Pedro de la Rosa, left, and Rob Smedley, right

Former Ferrari test driver Pedro de la Rosa joined Smedley on the podcast and agreed with his assessment of Red Bull’s performance, saying: “They're catchable. And they obviously will have less time to develop the cars in the wind tunnel than other teams.

The truth is that the gap is pretty big, you know, but they're catchable. There are only three races that have gone and there's plenty of laps, I mean, laps and laps and races to go.”

Mercedes self-deprecation 'doesn't ring true'

Smedley said that although the Brackley team had begun the season from a difficult place, he didn't agree with their assessment of the competition.

He said: “Mercedes, you know, they started off on the back-foot.

“Mercedes do a very clear job, let's say, with their outbound comms, their outbound communications, of saying how depressed they all are.

“But they’re such a strong team that at some point, they will come back.

“I think young George was saying straight after the Bahrain race that he felt Red Bull were going to win every race and Mercedes wouldn't win a single race – but there are 20 to 23 races in a Formula 1 season now.

“So for a team of that size and might to be making those kinds of statements after one race, I just don't think that rings true, to be honest. I don't think that's the conversations that have happened internally.”

‘Vasseur is a canny operator’

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur<a title= — Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur

Smedley also discussed Ferrari as it grapples with a transitional period, predicting that team boss Fred Vasseur will show his stripes soon.

He said: “Ferrari… They're going through a transition. There's no doubt about that, you know, Fred Vasseur’s just come into to the team.

“I think Fred is a canny operator and is good at what he does. He was very good at Alfa Romeo.

“And I think that you will start to see the marks of how good Fred is in the middle of this year. But again, it's a team that you know, needs to step up and take the fight to Red Bull.”