3 reason why Max Verstappen will win the 2023 F1 title

Max Verstappen will start the 2023 F1 season as a 2-time world champion. The Red Bull driver has been brilliant in the last two seasons and has truly started to mature as an F1 driver. The 2022 F1 championship was a dominant run for him although it was not without a stutter at the start of the season. The driver suffered from 2 DNFs in the first three races to make a comeback in the championship.

Winning 15 races in a season is a testimony of how dominant Verstappen was last season. On the other hand, the 2021 F1 season was the one where the Red Bull driver fought tooth and nail for the title until the last lap of the season. Now, coming into the 2023 F1 season, Max Verstappen might be looking at the toughest battle yet for the title.

Red Bull is handicapped with a cost cap penalty that is going to reduce the development time that the team will have this season. This time around, there is even a possibility that Verstappen could be looking at not one but two teams (Ferrari and Red Bull) that could compete against him for the title.

With cards stacked against him in this manner, can Verstappen still win the title? Yes, he can overcome the odds and win the title, here's why!

Red Bull will have a strong package

It should not be ignored that Red Bull is starting the 2023 F1 season on the back foot. The Milton Keynes-based squad already had a reduced development time as it won the title last season. Compound that with the cost cap infringement penalty and you have a situation where the team is significantly compromised in terms of development potential.

Having said that, it was obvious last season that Red Bull were the team that had cracked the code when it came to the new regulations. By the end of the season, it was clear that the car could do well on any kind of track. The advantage it had last season is going to spill over into this season.

What that means is that even though there is certainly a handicap that Red Bull has to work with this season and maybe by the end of the season, the team might fall behind Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of performance. The overall competitiveness will be there.

At the end of the day, Max Verstappen has shown that he is the kind of driver that just needs a competitive car to fight for the title. If Red Bull can bring that, a title fight is surely on the table.

The team has the best in-race operations on the grid

This is something that has come to the fore in the last few years. In the years since Mercedes was dominating and running away with the championship, Red Bull has been working hard to upgrade its in-race operations.

The Austrian team tends to have the best pitstops on the entire F1 grid. More often than not, you will see Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez very high on the list of the shortest pitstops in F1.

Not only that, but when it comes to deciding team strategies, there's no one better than Red Bull at the moment. For instance, Max Verstappen was in a pickle in Mexico and the Netherlands last season and if it wasn't for the team choosing the right strategy, he would have lost.

In terms of maximizing the results every weekend, you need a strong strategic unit in place for every race. Red Bull has that and it supplements Max Verstappen all the time.

Max Verstappen is the best driver on the grid right now

The last piece of the puzzle that will help decide the championship is Max Verstappen, the driver. In the last two seasons, Verstappen has shown that he's the best driver on the grid.

Most importantly, it's not because he's the fastest, it's because he has the ability to put together strong performances every weekend. He's one of, if not the most consistent drivers on the F1 grid and that certainly helps him in the title battle. This was evident in 2021 as well, where one of the key differentiators between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen was the Red Bull driver's consistency.

Both drivers performed at a very high level, but when it came to Max, it's hard to see where his performances were off the mark or if he made big mistakes. Lewis, on the other hand, had such races, and that sealed the title for Max.