"You are going to be swamped"- Former F1 champion warns Red Bull of Mercedes and Ferrari threat if they 'stand still' after their victory

Former F1 world champion Damon Hill feels that Red Bull cannot afford to stand still with their car or that they could get swamped by Mercedes and Ferrari. Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast crew, he said that the Milton Keynes-based team needs to continue the development of the car. The former Williams driver believes that their rivals will try everything possible to catch up. He said,

“If you stand still, for a second in Formula 1, in this sport you are going to be swamped. You are literally going to sink into quicksand. So the pace for anyone, even if they are winning, the pressure is relentless. If they don’t do any more development now on this car, I think Ferrari and Mercedes will be all over them by time you get to Abu Dhabi.”

Tom Clarkson, a fellow member of the crew and a respected F1 journalist, said that the cost cap could be a constraint in this scenario. There is a huge drop in the development budget for this season. Mercedes and Ferrari have most likely exhausted their budgets for the season. He said,

“I think the cost cap will limit other teams’ ability to respond, there is so much Ferrari and Mercedes can do now. I think it probably won’t close, they are all going to wait and hope to make the big step up over the winter because they’ve all spent their development budget. I think was it Christian Horner who said our development this year is eight million, down from about 50 pre cost cap. That is a massive swing."

He further added,

"When you consider what Ferrari have already brought to the table, what Mercedes have already brought to the table, I think the focus now is to get the most out of the package at every race. In terms of development it is all about 2023.”

Mercedes feels Red Bull has the best concept this season

Mercedes’ trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin did concede recently that they believe Adrian Newey's design of the RB18 this year was accurate. He feels Red Bull currently has the best concept. Shovlin admitted it was worth exploring at this stage as that was the fastest package in F1. He said,

“I think the rules do change for next year, that’s going to change how people are looking at developing their car. You’d always say that the fastest car is the one that’s got the best concept, so, you know, today that’s going to be Red Bull. Where that goes into next year it’s difficult to say."

He further added,

“Certainly we, as a team, have not fixed what our car is going to look like. We’re still exploring different concepts. That process will go on for some time, but we’re just looking for what will give us the best development opportunity in those new regulations going forward.”

The next season is going to be interesting and intriguing. With a year for the technical regulations to take effect, the grid could converge and the gaps could shrink in the field.