Mark Hughes explains why Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin have been unable to consistently challenge Red Bull

F1 pundit Mark Hughes recently explained why top teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin have struggled to put up a fight against Red Bull.

The Austrian-British team has been consistently winning every race in the 2023 F1 season. None of their rivals have been able to challenge them or put pressure on them consistently.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Hughes explained how other top teams have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the track layout and characteristics. Although it affects the reigning world champions as well, Mark Hughes feels that their overall pace difference negates the performance inconsistency occurring due to track characteristics.

"They all have different strengths and weaknesses relative to each other, and at different track layouts and different tire demands will favor and disfavor each of them in a different way," Hughes said. "This is true even for Red Bull, it will be, but because it's got such a big overall margin on everyone, it doesn't really show it's always the fastest. Even on its worst tracks, it's margin just fluctuates a bit."

Hughes further dove into how each and every top team except Red Bull has some kind of major downforce or drag trade-off that is not allowing them to match the reigning world champions.

"So in terms of why none of the chasing teams has established itself, it's simply because they're each at a similar overall level, but they are optimized around slightly different drag or downforce trade-offs," he continued.

Mark Hughes also speculated that the main advantage the Austrian-British team has over other top teams is its unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency.

"So you know, any given track or any different track temperature or surface, you can see how they will just completely switch the order just like, you know, symbols on a fruit machine according to the circumstances. Bottom line is that none of them has got the Red Bull's aero efficiency," he added.

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Christian Horner feels Red Bull rivals would be closer in the second half of the 2023 F1 season

Though Christian Horner's team is currently comfortably leading the championship, he feels that other rival teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin could close the gap much more quickly in the second half of the season. This is primarily because the Austrian-British outfit has now shifted half of its focus to their 2024 challenger.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the British GP, Horner said:

“The next races? For us there is already a lot of work aimed at next year, because we have very little time to use in the wind tunnel. So maybe you will see the other teams getting a bit closer in the second part of the season, because we don't have as much time to devote to development."

Red Bull is currently first in the constructors' championship with 411 points, while Mercedes sits in second place with only 203 points.