After a few months of rest and a lot of preparation, both technical and physical, the Formula 1 drivers and teams have everything ready to start the 2023 season, which should be the confirmation of the success of the technical regulations that opened a new era on last year. Max Verstappen and Red Bull swept against the push of a Ferrari that fell into its own chaos, and a Mercedes whose late reaction was too much. The variables that can be opened this year are multiple, but without a doubt there will be at least five centers of attention, with their names and surnames, which could turn the tables.
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Let no one be fooled: Fernando Alonso is not a favourite, not even a candidate, to win the World Cup this year. They have said it themselves and they are not trying to sell smoke beyond their means. However, the unexpected switch to Aston Martin has raised many eyebrows in the paddock: why did the most experienced driver in Formula 1 history switch to a team that was at the bottom of the table? What did the Spaniard see in the project, and the team in the pilot, to take such a risk? Will victory number 33 come or will ‘the Mission’ be another tough drink to swallow?
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Lewis Hamilton had grown used to being the leader, the favorite and the champion. After the longest and most forceful reign in recent Formula 1 history, Max Verstappen took him off his throne. Mercedes gave him a car that was by no means superior, but rather a failure in terms of fighting for victories, to the point that Hamilton, for the first time in his career, closed a winless season. After two years without kissing a title, the best driver in history in quantitative terms is hungry. Will he achieve his eighth World Cup to surpass Michael Schumacher?
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The cannibal Verstappen made it clear in 2022 that what happened in 2021 was neither a mirage, nor much less unfair. The Red Bull driver has become the rival to beat, willing to wipe out the records that his great rival Hamilton has and will have for at least a decade. He is not willing for anything or anyone, much less his partner Sergio Pérez, to cast the slightest shadow on him. Everything that is not seeing him at the top from the beginning of the year will be a surprise.
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Seeing how 2022 began, the word “failure” resonates even more when you can define your performance last year. Ferrari took three steps forward with respect to the previous one, but they did not know how to manage their technical favoritism, especially due to management errors that took Mattia Binotto as head of the Scuderia and other men, such as Iñaki Rueda who will no longer be at the helm. front of track strategy. The Monegasque will be, on paper, the first driver of the new Ferrari that will be led by his former boss Frédéric Vasseur.
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Carlos Sainz had gotten used to being the leader of his teams, but he did not know or could not adapt to the maelstrom of Ferrari at the top of the grid. Leclerc beat him smugly and there were moments when he was most reminiscent of second-rate drivers in the history of the Scuderia, such as Barrichello or the worst Massa, despite the fact that his first long-awaited victory came in 2022. He needs to vindicate himself and it is precisely this desire for revenge that can give him that ‘extra’ to become a candidate for much more.
