Red Bull are looking to build on a dominant 2022 season in which they clinched both world championship titles for the first time since 2013, with Max Verstappen winning a record 15 out of 22 races on his way to sealing a second successive drivers’ crown.
They are set to face a renewed challenge from a reinvigorated Ferrari, while Mercedes hope their modified W14 challenger can bring Lewis Hamilton and George Russell back into title contention after a miserable campaign last year.
But Kravitz expects Red Bull to remain the team to beat after pinpointing three key benefits they
A lightweight chassis
Red Bull’s RB19 has so far been shrouded in mystery but Kravitz has provided some detail about their latest challenger.
Kravitz has claimed Red Bull will finally introduce the lightweight chassis that was rumoured to have been developed last season but never raced.
Weight proved to be one of the few weaknesses of the RB18 but Red Bull look set to be boosted by a performance gain straight out of the blocks.
“Red Bull will start with the lightweight chassis that they introduced and designed and made we think but never raced towards the end of the year [2022],” Kravitz said. “They’ll start with that as a base.
“They will develop that, so it will be underweight and they can ballast it up to meet the weight limit.”
Cost cap penalty yet to ‘bite'
Despite being hit with a 10 percent reduction on their aerodynamic testing allowance as punishment for breaching the F1 cost cap in 2021, Kravitz said Red Bull won’t feel the full impact of their penalty until later in the year, or even 2024.
"They will have done all the academic work and design before the restrictions they had on the accepted breach agreement of their cost cap restrictions came in, their penalty for that,” he explained.
“So they’ve done all the work before that even comes in. Towards the end of this year and next year it will start to bite.”
The strongest driver line-up
Finally, Kravitz believes Red Bull boasts the strongest driver line-up on the entire grid, including F1’s most in-form driver, Verstappen.
Kravitz described the reigning world champion as the “third part” of Red Bull’s “secret weapon” for success in 2023.
“They have the best driver on the grid in terms of form at the moment,” he stated, “even considering Lewis Hamilton.
“We haven’t seen the championship form of Lewis yet because he hasn’t been in the championship [fight] since the end of 2021, which we know what happened then.
“Max Verstappen is bang in form and I think that is the third part of their secret weapon that should make them nigh on unbeatable.”
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