Lewis Hamilton made a bold prediction regarding the speed of Red Bull earlier in the season and many Express Sport readers agreed with him.
After finishing fifth at the F1 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix last month, the seven-time world champion claimed Christian Horner’s men have produced the fastest car in the sport’s history. An overwhelming 62% of the 17,589 responses to the latest Express Sport poll agreed with the Brit’s statement as the Dutchman crossed the line to win the Australian Grand Prix, his second victory of the year after Sergio Perez took the chequered flag in Jeddah.
Meanwhile, another question was posed to Express Sport readers regarding George Russell’s belief that Red Bull can win every race of the season. A convincing 83% of responses do not think the Milton Keynes-based team can go through the entire F1 season with one of their drivers winning every race. It will be a difficult challenge for Red Bull to go unbeaten all year, but they have made an impressive start to their 2023 campaign as they bid to successfully defend their drivers and constructors titles.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff agreed with Russell’s sentiments that Red Bull could win every race this year. “With my sporting aspirations, it was bad to see our deficit,” Wolff told Austrian publication OE24. “We don’t want to finish second, we want to win. But there is a team miles ahead. They are playing with the competition, they don’t even have tyre wear. After the first grand prix I also believe that they will win every race this year.”
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After Verstappen tore through the field from 15th place to finish second in Saudi Arabia, along with the speed they showed Bahrain and Australia earlier today, Hamilton marvelled at the car Red Bull has put together for the season.
“I have definitely never seen a car so fast,” Hamilton said last month. “When we were fast, we were not that fast. It is the fastest car I have seen, especially compared to the rest. I don’t know how, but he [Verstappen] came past me with some serious speed and I didn’t even bother to block him because there was a massive speed difference. Everyone wants to see a close battle, but it is the way it is. It is not my problem, it is not my fault.” Hamilton certainly challenged Verstappen and Red Bull as he secured his best finish of the season after crossing the line second in Australia.
The third race of the campaign was certainly the most chaotic, as three red flags were issued and it ended in complete chaos as a late restart ended with five cars being taken out in a mass collision. The second of the red flags issued meant that there would be two racing laps from a standing start to conclude the race.
The race featured some serious incidents involving both Alpine drivers, as well as contact between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez was also forced off the track. Hamilton took the lead of the race for a period, before the superior Red Bull machinery roared past and meant he had to settle for the runner-up spot.
After picking up his first podium of the year, the 38-year-old was very surprised by the result given Mercedes’ struggles so far this year. “It was very unexpected. Obviously just coming into the weekend, but obviously, also getting a second and third and qualifying yesterday really blew us all away and a huge boost of energy throughout the team,” he said.
“So that meant today we had a shot at, you know, trying to at least overtake Max for a second. And so, we [Russell and Hamilton] both got ahead, which was amazing. To have a Mercedes one-two for a second. It was a really entertaining race and I had a really good battle with Fernando [Alonso], which was awesome.”
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