Verstappen Identifies Most Threatening Team To Red Bull For Next Year

Friday, 22 December 2023 at 19:00

Max Verstappen recently discussed the most probable rival that could make a big enough step during the winter break to catch up with Red Bull in 2024.

Looking at the 2023 season in terms of statistics, it seems like Red Bull was miles off the rest of the field in terms of pace. While that was the case at the beginning of the season, things have changed towards the end.

It might have also been influenced by Red Bull shifting its focus on the next year's car development, but teams like McLaren, Ferrari, or Mercedes all seemed to have gotten significantly closer in the second half of the season.

Nevertheless, Red Bull still went into the winter break with a gap that others had to close. In terms of which team might possibly be a threat to the team from Milton Keynes in 2024, Max Verstappen said on the Talking Bull podcast:

"We were the only team that was really consistent. That’s the thing that behind us, it was really up and down and it was one team second and another team, so that’s why the battle was quite close behind us."

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Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has already warned multiple times he expects rivals to catch up in 2024 as his team is already reaching the top of the development curve.

Verstappen believes multiple F1 teams behind Red Bull have been pretty much equal on pace, and it all depends on how big of a step forward in development they can make during the winter.

"So it will all depend on how much they will improve in the wintertime. Which one, I think, was the most impressive behind us, from where they started to where they ended, was definitely McLaren. So it looks like they might be very strong next year."

McLaren is definitely the team that made the most significant step forward during the most recent season. Do you believe that the Papaya team could repeat the process and pose a threat to Red Bull and Max Verstappen next year?