Here’s hoping next season is more like 2021. Hopefully Merc can take at least one win this season, but I’m not counting on it.
They got one last year! And seemed to be further back to start. One Max problem and it seems totally possible.
Agreed, Mercedes has indeed improved, but it will take a Max DNF and quite a bit of luck for them to get that top spot on the podium.
Everybody here is already discounting Checo. So far he stepped up the two times it was needed.
Will be nice to see some competition at the top for sure.
Mid field has been fun, but there’s something about not knowing who the number 1 will go to that has an effect on how I view the race quality.
It obviously isn’t going to matter for the championship, but I’d love to see Mercedes get back on form and make the later races competitive at the front. The midfield battles have been good so far this year, but you sort of have to ignore the fact that Red Bull exists.
I’d love to see that, but realistically I think we’ve just got to hope for next year now. Red bull have done an upsettingly brilliant job
RB have probably stopped developing the car for this year because they’re dominating so what would be the point. So I can see other teams catching up towards the end of the year but they’ll probably fall back again at the start of 2024.
I don’t think they’ve completely stopped just yet. We’re not even halfway through the season. I can see them scale back their efforts significantly tho. But yeah, you’re right. Probably the field will close up a bit towards the end of the season. How it’ll effect 2024 we don’t know. Here’s to Merc and Ferrari not shitting the bed again and Aston continuing onwards on their upwards trend.
I can’t help but feel like it will end up like 2019/20, when Merc took their foot off the pedal towards the end/Red Bull almost caught up, only for next year to reset everything
It sounds realistic. The effects of RB’s cost cap penalty will kick in in a few races, and with the lead they have they’ll be better off developing next year’s car. It’s better for them to win the championship by a small margin than by a landslide.
Red Bull’s lead is pretty big though, Mercedes has to catch up quite a bit more to match their pace.
Yeah I think so too. But this means there’s a big chance they’ll have an advantage at the start of next year too while other teams keep trying to catch up.
I doubt that they’ll be able to take the fight to RB by the end of the season honestly. RB or Max specifically hasn’t really had a reason to show the true pace of their car so far. The difference in race pace is just too big.
Next season could be a different story. Surely Ferrari will also get their shit together, right? :D
