It’s moments before Kevin Magnussen clonks the wall to rip off a tyre on lap 54 of 58 in the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. The shredded rubber will shortly result in a second red flag to cause the contest to descend into chaos. Anyhow, at this point, Max Verstappen leads Lewis Hamilton by almost 8.5 seconds. That margin pushes Red Bull more than a lap of its home race ahead of any rival Formula 1 team so far this season.
Defending two-time champion Verstappen won the Bahrain opener over stablemate Sergio Perez, while Fernando Alonso was the highest-placed non-RB19 driver. He crossed the line 38.637s behind the victor. Perez reversed the Red Bull roles in Saudi Arabia to triumph, with Alonso again best of the rest. After Aston Martin successfully appealed his penalty, the Spaniard was classified 20.728s adrift.
Add those two advantages to the control Verstappen held down under and Red Bull might boast a cumulative cushion of 1m07.718s to underscore its perfect win record at the start of the term. That’s nigh on three seconds more than Verstappen’s 1m04.984s pole time for last year’s Austrian GP.
Of course, events in Melbourne actually concluded with a procession behind the safety car to return Verstappen a gap of only 0.179s. But still, the flying start made by Red Bull is clear for all to see. And had any of the red flags and full grid restarts in Australia been avoided, or Perez not fluffed his launch in Saudi, or the pair of RB19s not managed their pace when so far ahead, the gulf would be even greater.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has insisted new fans aren’t perturbed by this sort of monopoly and other teams will catch up. That seems almost inevitable, unless Red Bull really is to beat McLaren’s 1988 effort of 15 from 16 to win every GP on the calendar. But a closer look at the nature of the reigning constructors’ champion’s power suggests a defeat might not arrive any time soon.
Aston is the surprise package of 2023, having risen from seventh in the standings last season to now sit a representative second. But Alonso reckons he will need help from a Red Bull penalty, botched pitstop, crash or bit of unreliability if he is to vanquish the RB19s. On merit alone, the pace of the draggy AMR23 isn’t quite there, he says.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
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