Andrea Stella says the nine teams behind Oracle Red Bull Racing have ‘no excuses’ as they try and close the gap at the front of the field, although he fears that not even the limitations enforced by the FIA over their wind tunnel and CFD usage will stop them dominating.
Red Bull have won both of the opening two races of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season in convincing fashion, with a victory apiece for Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez.
Stella, the Team Principal of the struggling McLaren F1 Team, accepts that Formula 1 could have a year of one team dominating the sport, as has happened in the past, but the other teams know they only to look at the RB19 to know where they can do better to improve their own pace.
“We’ve had really phenomenal seasons in the previous years in terms of how close the competition for the victory was,” said Stella to Motorsport.com. “We might even have to accept that there’s a season in which one team is dominant.
“But I think with all the information you have now, even with the possibility that you have to look at the car, like we have cars on display on Friday, there’s no excuses for the other teams to say we don’t know what to do.
“So for me, I keep saying it’s more for the other teams that they need to take this opportunity to improve. Ultimately it’s a sport which, if you are faster, you’re going to win races. I don’t think there’s an easy solution.”
Stella does not believe the limitations enforced by the FIA over the usage of Red Bull’s wind tunnel and CFD for breaking the budget cap will affect the team, with the gap at the current time very difficult for any of the other nine teams to bridge.
“The advantage at the moment seems large enough that they shouldn’t be affected too much in terms of the gap that they show by the fact that they can’t develop as much as the teams behind them,” Stella said.
“That’s my expectation, but I would expect that other teams should take not only inspiration from a morale point of view, but a technical inspiration.
“The season is long and there is time to transform this information you get into developments, therefore I would expect towards the end of the season that the group will get even closer to Red Bull.”