Formula One Season 2023 Outlook - Redemption Arcs & New Characters

Another year means another season of Formula One! I hope you’all got nicely into 2023 and are looking forward to all of the interesting sports events that are awaiting us. One of them is certainly the 2023 Formula One season. While the last one was a great competition which got very boring to the end, I really think that this season will get us more action. In this article I want to take a look at the upcoming season, although it is a little further away. I want to break down the teams and try to give an outlook of how their season will look like in the next 12 months.

Williams & Haas

Let’s start off from the bottom. I think it is save to say that Williams did not have the greatest season last year. This is also probably the reason why they got rid of Nicolas Latifi and why their team-boss stepped down. I think their current driver pairing with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant are capable drivers. But with the rookie Sargeant and the Albon who did show his weaknesses at Red Bull it is clear that these guys will not compete for the championship. While this team is getting the longest time in the wind tunnel, I do not believe, it will help them tremendously. My prediction is that they will make some points as the races will get closer but will still be in the las place at the end of the season.

I think that the fait of Haas will be very similar. While they had a very formidable last season, I think that their team structure will not allow them for more. They are one of the smallest teams on the grid and with getting rid of Schumacher, they will not have the greatest standing now. I can see the two new drivers having some issues throughout the season team internally, since Hulkenberg and Magnussen already had clashes trough their career. Furthermore, I think that their race speed will not be as good as it was last year which will result in them and Williams battling it out in the back of the grid.

Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo & Alpha Tauri

Moving up we are having Aston Martin who have replaced the retired Sebastian Vettel with Fernando Alonso. A very good signing but definitely not an improvement compared to Vettel. I believe that this team is lacking some kind of creativity as their last two season were not really great to be honest. Their engineering was not on the top of their game and I really hope they will be able to change that in the upcoming season. Nevertheless I do not see them in the first half of the teams but still considerably ahead of the first two teams that I mentioned.

Next up we have the Alfa Romeo team which have lost their team-boss. They got an adequate successor in Andreas Seidl who was working for McLaren the past few seasons. Still I believe that he will need time to make an impact in this team while I also believe he will not be able to change anything for this year. Furthermore, he will be focusing on his Audi task for 2026 and I also think this is the main reason why he went into this team. With Bottas and Zhou, the team has two very solid drivers. I do believe that Bottas will get them a good amount of points while Zhou will have the occasional point finish. All in all this team has potential but is not quite there yet in my opinion.

For the last team in the bottom half, we have Alpha Tauri, the sister team of Red Bull. With the departure of Gasly and the newly signed Nyck de Vries it will be an interesting story to see. Many people are speculating to see Nyck soon alongside Verstappen in a Red Bull. I am very curious to see how it plays out. With Tsunoda and de Vries this team has most likely the two shortest drivers on the track, which will look hilarious on pictures but I also think that they can make some great races. It will all depend how well de Vries can handle his momentum coming into F1 as well as Tsunoda handling his mistakes.

McLaren & Alpine

Arriving in the top half, we have two teams who will try to get into the top 3 but will not quite make it yet again. The first one being McLaren. With the departure of Ricciardo and their team-boss Seidl, they have some big shoes to fill. Granted, they wanted to get rid of Ricciardo and signed the young talent of Piastri which was a whole drama on itself. I think that they might do quite well. The driver pairing of Norris and Piastri is very promising where Norris is the clear favorite. They will defiantly have some chances for a podium if they keep up their great work.

On the other hand we have Alpine, who have lost not only Alonso but also the afore mentioned Piastri. They were able to replace Alonso with Pierre Gasly which looks like a great signing on paper but still needs to be proven one. Gasly hadn’t the greatest of seasons last year as defiantly looked like he needed some changes. Coming into a new team after years of staying with the same team is difficult and will not be easy for Gasly. With Ocon they have a really great driver already which will need to carry this team until Gasly will get into his form.

Mercedes, Ferrari & Red Bull

Last but not least we need to talk about the three title contenders. I am having no doubt that one of these teams will win the constructors championship as well as one of their drivers will win the drivers championship. I think there are a lot of redemption arcs going on. Ferrari will need to prove that last season was just a slip up and that there are not a comedic show. For this reason, their team chef Binotto resigned. Furthermore, there is Lewis Hamilton who wants revenge on his devastating loss two years before. He will come back stronger than ever as well as Mercedes in general who want to make up for the lost title chance in the previous year.

Another interesting arc wil leb the one of Perez and Ricciardo. While Danny is a reserve driver, there were some rumors that Perez is not happy with the treatment he is getting at Red Bull as a second driver. Now to be honest, there is something to dig for in this regard but I also think that nobody really is carrying about Perez at Red bull. This means that once he will not show results, he will be replaced by Danny as quickly as possible and I think it could happen in the first half of the season. Furthermore, I am very excited to see Russell battling for race wins again. It will be a very hard fight with Hamilton but he is definitely not without a chance and will be there if the team needs him.

I have the feeling that Mercedes will make it this year once again. Their pride is damaged and they want revenge It will be also a hard battle between Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen for the crown. Right now it is very hard to say who will get it but if I needed to give a estimation right now, I would say that Lewis will crown himself the absolute GOAT of this sports and will get his ninth championship.

Published by ga38jem on
Sports Talk Social
On 4th January 2023