"Others Are Not Stupid" Verstappen Expects To See More Teams Catching Up In 2024
F1Saturday, 23 December 2023 at 15:00
Three-time World Champion Max Verstappen expects remaining F1 teams to take a step towards Red Bull through winter break.
After the last race at Yas Marina Circuit concluded the 2023 season, all the F1 teams fully dived into the development of the following year's cars.
The progress that the ten teams make throughout the three months of winter break will determine their results in the first half of the 2024 season.
In the last two years, Red Bull has been the most successful in making progress with their car and had a great pace advantage which allowed Max Verstappen with Sergio Perez to dominate.
However, the Dutchman stated he believes others will start to understand what they have to do to catch up with Red Bull after two years. He said in an interview for the 5 live F1 review show:
"The others are not stupid. They are all learning. Of course, the longer you keep the regulations the same, the closer it will get, because people start to understand which direction they have to develop in."
The triple World Champion already shared about two weeks ago his adjusted expectations from the 2024 season when he said he would be okay with winning the Championship even if he could only win 6 or 10 races.
"Luckily, we hit the ground running really well with the regulations [in 2022], but I definitely expect next year, for sure, all will definitely take a step towards us."
While the 26-year-old expects and warns that other teams might get closer, it doesn't mean he won't win the Championship again. He added;
"I don't know which particular team, because if you look at the whole season, it has been a bit up and down for everyone except us, so I don't really know in the winter which team is going to make the biggest jump. Hopefully, of course, they still stay behind but we'll see in Bahrain."
The Dutchman recently named one team that he thought could make the most significant progress based on what they've shown in 2023. Do you think it is possible for anyone to catch up with Red Bull?
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