Red Bull led the entire 2023 season, and Lewis Hamilton was victorious only in the closing stages.

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, thinks Lewis Hamilton’s negative outlook can be overcome and believes Red Bull can be caught. The renowned British player has consistently expressed his belief that the current winners will not be defeated prior to the implementation of the technical regulation modifications in 2026.

Red Bull has had an incredible year in 2023. The Milton Keynes-based team brought the RB19 to the Bahrain season opener, and after nine months, that vehicle is now etched in F1 annals.

Max Verstappen won 19 of the 22 Grands Prix held during the previous season, helping Red Bull win 21 of them and break nearly every record in the process as he won the Drivers’ Championship for the third time in a row.

Hamilton was devastated by Mercedes’s poor performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the end, he said, “all I can do is try to remain optimistic. I think the Red Bull is going to be very clear for the next couple of years because they’re so far away.”

Compared to their long-standing rivals, Mercedes had far less to rejoice about in 2023. There has only been one Grand Prix victory by the Silver Arrows since Lewis Hamilton topped the podium in Saudi Arabia in 2021, as the team finished the season without a win.

Even though Toto Wolff’s team finished the season second in the standings, Ferrari and McLaren are feeling more optimistic about their campaigns going into the winter break, and Mercedes will need to significantly improve their car concept if they want to close the gap with Red Bull.

Villeneuve, though, isn’t persuaded that Red Bull can’t be caught. He said to PlanetF1, “Red Bull is not that far ahead.” “It was a tenth, half a tenth, really close, when they got all their poles in place. Thus, that isn’t dominance. That wasn’t the Mercedes era when they would always be one second ahead of everyone and no one would ever complain.”

Rather, he thinks Verstappen is the one changing things, saying, “Max makes the difference because he’s at it 24 hours a day.” He never seems to tire. He still has racing on his mind as he exits the vehicle for the race car. That’s all there is to it. Maybe they could reach Max’s level if everyone had the same level of focus as Max.