Lewis Hamilton has expressed a somewhat pessimistic outlook, but former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve is still optimistic about a rival team catching Red Bull.
The seven-time world champion driver has repeatedly expressed his opinion that the current leaders will not be defeated until 2026, when technical regulation changes are put into effect.
For Red Bull, 2023 was nothing short of extraordinary. At the Bahrain season opener, the Milton Keynes team unveiled the formidable RB19, and over the course of nine months, the vehicle made its mark in Formula 1 history.
Red Bull won 21 of the 22 grand prix that were held last season thanks to their dominance. Leading 19 of these victories, Max Verstappen broke almost all records en route to winning an incredible third consecutive drivers’ championship.
Villeneuve disagrees with Hamilton
On the other hand, Villeneuve thinks Hamilton is mistaken when he predicts Red Bull will soar into the future.
“That is not too far ahead for Red Bull,” he said. “It was a tenth, half a tenth, really close, when they secured all of their poles. Domination does not exist there”.
“Those were not the Mercedes days when they would always be one second ahead of everyone and nobody would ever complain about it.”
Because he works on it nonstop, Max makes a big difference. He is constantly energetic. Thoughts of racing continue to consume him as he exits the race car.
It is all that is in existence. Perhaps they could all reach Max’s level of focus if that were the case.
