Fittipaldi: Red Bull way above everybody but expect surprises

It was evident, after three days of F1 preseason testing, in preparation for the 2023 F1 World Championship, that Red Bull had the upper hand with Sergio Perez fastest of all at the end of the three days, and Max Verstappen was always on it in all his stints in the car, topping the timesheets on Day 1.

In other words, the Adrian Newey-penned RB19 appears to be a worthy successor to the dominant RB18 of last year which powered Verstappen to a relatively easy second F1 world title.

Speaking to VegasInsider, Fittipaldi said: "To me, Red Bull are way up above everybody, when I look at the cars. The way the car behaves, the downforce, the grip. When you have that grip and downforce, you deteriorate the tires less. That makes the package even more competitive.”

"I think we should see qualifying in the first race and see if there are any surprises there. People probably are not showing full performance in testing. There could be much better performances this weekend. You can always have a surprise like we did last year. Teams that are not performing well can perform well," ventured the Brazilian double F1 World Champion.

Casting an eye into the Mercedes camp, Fittipaldi sees: "They let the drivers fight each other. I think that's a good policy. George was more consistent at the beginning of last season and then Lewis came back. The talent and experience of Lewis are there. No doubt about that. He has a gift, the talent, and putting it together, it will be tough for both."

While Mercedes appear to have work to do in terms of the power pecking order, from what we saw in testing, Ferrari seemed to have a decent car in the SF-23 which prompted Fittipaldi to comment: "It will be interesting and it is similar to the situation of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. I think that is also interesting to keep track of.

"At that level, Mercedes will not give any advantage to either driver until the championship points start accumulating in the year. At one point, they'll have to make the decision of putting 100 percent effort behind Lewis or behind George. Depends on who's where. That can happen. It can happen easily in that situation."

Finally a word for Alpine with Pierre Gasly joining Esteban Ocon in the squad, Fittipaldi joked: “Can you imagine a French team with two French drivers? I would like to watch that and understand their conversation.

“I think it will be a big challenge and these will be the two drivers in dispute. In my opinion, it's going to be amazing to see both drivers fight each other and the team manager communicating with them -

“There will be a lot of action for sure," concluded Fittipaldi.

The 2023 23-race F1 season begins this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix, free practice on Friday, practice and qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday, 5 March. Stay tuned!