The engines roar, hear the noise. He starts again from Sakhir, in Bahrain, being careful not to get too distracted by qualifying. We saw last year that there were Saturday classifications and Sunday classifications. And on Sunday Max always won. It begins today, in the desert wind and in the colors of the evening, March 5, 2023, with the strong doubt of a season to pass under the sign of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. And it ends when we get ready for Christmas, November 26 in Abu Dhabi, after taking the drivers around the whole world in the longest world championship ever since the Formula One championship has existed, with a calendar that includes 23 races. Compared to 2022, the novelties are represented by the Qatar Grand Prix, which will replace the one in France, and by the return of the Las Vegas GP (November 17-19). The USA will take the lion’s share with two other appointments, Austin and Miami. The double Italian weekend has been confirmed, 19-21 May in Imola, 1-3 September in Monza. The sprint races will increase from 3 to 6: Baku (Azerbaijan)m Red Bull Ring (Austria), Spa Francorchamps (Belgium), Losail (Qatar), Austin (USA) and Interlagos (Brazil).
Grandpa Fernando the Incredible Hulk
In one way or another, the signs of the new season have all arrived, with its old and new protagonists, the undisputed power of Red Bull, the run-up to Ferrari and the return of Mercedes which has tried to hide until the end. Then there is grandfather Ferdi, Fernando Alonso, 42 years old on the back, 20 in f1 and not showing it. He made his debut with Minardi on 4 March 2001. His last success is now 10 years away, in Spain, with Ferrari in 2013. Instead, he finished on the podium two years ago in Qatar. But this year the Aston Martin, with a Mercedes engine, is restoring ancient sensations to him, and he seems to be in great shape, slimmed down and polished in the new green uniform, like that of the Marvel superhero, the Incredible Hulk. He doesn’t start to compete in the world championship but to annoy the majority and maybe win a grand prix: it wouldn’t be bad at 42 years old. For the title, however, Max is annoyed by the usual suspects, and you have to pay attention to Mercedes, who have done everything to hide, and there must be a reason.
The misunderstanding of the Red
Ferrari seems to be the daughter of a defeat with confusing implicationsof a disruption of her image that dragged herself awkwardly between brandish errors and courtyard spite, and starts from this position here, from this lack of protection above all of herself, which has made her almost a gender discrimination, an object not even of controversy, it doesn’t matter if coarse or polished, but really of pity, or worse still of derision. A bit like the impoverished nobleman of certain Italian comedies, who talks like a great gentleman, but then goes around with elbow patches and a jacket because he doesn’t even have the money to buy a new suit. The absurd thing is that the Ferrari company is not suffering from money of any kind, and indeed it is a real economic power, a great money-making machine, an iconic brand that has known neither crisis nor Covid until now.
Yet as soon as he enters the realm of sport, in the particular world of F1, it seems that he purposely loses his identity to transform himself into Count Max. The change of the guard Binotto Vasseur with his sometimes hysterical and disconsolate narration is a quite evident example of this. Now it happens that this season’s car, the Sf23, was prepared and put on the track by Binotto and his team, and will instead have to be developed by the newcomer. Everything changes, finally they also removed Inaki Rueda from the track, the performers turn and cross each other like in a card game played by the magician Silvan, but then at the end of the story Ferrari continues to eat its tires just like last year. You don’t go anywhere like this. You fly to qualifying and that’s it. It must be for this reason that many, and not just us, don’t trust it too much and haven’t put it among the favorites of the season, even Christian Horner, the Red Bull team manager, who has already expressly stated that he fears the Mercedes.
Max’s overpower
The truth is that the Austrian house risks running on its own. The first signs of these 2023s have already told us that in addition to the usual Verstappen, who never misses a beat, now Perez has also started to go fast. They are good, but the car even better. Then it must be said that this car is perfect for the Dutch driver, amplifying his qualities. If he were a politician, Verstappen would be one of those who, even in the highest seat, mix a cold government pragmatism with a furious vocal opposition. He is someone who commands without having changed too much the tone with which he conquered power.
But some of us thought well of ask artificial intelligence, the genius robot of the GPT Chat that is so fashionable, to predict this world championship. And the result is surprising: the favorites are Mercedes, which will win the title narrowly over Red Bull. The Ferrari? Out of contention, detached behind together with Aston Martin. Let’s keep that in mind. In the end we will see if even the genes are wrong, or if they even understand us more about engines than we do.