"We are operating in the closest F1 grid that we have ever had": Pundit has a contrarian take despite Red Bull winning 21 out of 22 races in 2023

F1 analyst Sean Kelly believes the current F1 grid is tight compared to the past, even though Red Bull alone won 21 out of 22 races in the 2023 season. This year, the lap times amongst all 20 drivers were nail-bitingly close.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Kelly stated that despite Red Bull star Max Verstappen's performance giving the impression of F1 not being competitive at the front, the grid is closer than ever. He pointed out that the lap time difference between the first and the last driver is less than a second, something that used to be the difference between the first and the second-fastest drivers back in the early 90s.

"Despite what Max Verstappen gives the impression, we are operating in the closest Formula 1 grid that we have ever had in history. We have had multiple Q1 sessions this year where less than a second was the spread between first and last [driver]. That, in the early 90s, with the Williams FW14B, was the difference between first and second. And now it's the entire grid," he said.

Furthermore, the F1 pundit claimed that due to this kind of closeness in lap times, even the slightest changes in the car, driver, or even the weather could switch up the grid.

"So even the slightest change of the wind...literally the wind can change direction and it can mean your teammate outqualifies you. So it's probably not fair to compare, for instance, Senna in the turbo era on qualifying tires with the format in which they qualify today with the grid being this close," he said.

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Christian Horner praises Max Verstappen and Red Bull for a perfect season in 2023

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is delighted with how the 2023 F1 season panned out. The Austrian-British team won every race except the Singapore GP. They were on a whole different level, which no other team could achieve throughout the season. When Sportskeeda asked him about Red Bull's dominant season during the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, Horner replied:

"I think Max and the team this year that the standard that we've been able to hit to win 21 out of 22 races, to have led with Max over 1000 laps over out of 1300 or so. To have broken so many, so many records, I think he's hit yet another level. But I think the way that the team has operated across 22 different circuits or certainly 21 of them. You know operationally reliability wise, performance wise, everybody's done their part."

"And you know, all the men and women behind the scenes back in Milton Keynes, all the operational staff, everybody has done their bit and contributed to what we've seen in what will surely go down as one of the or certainly currently the most dominant season ever seen in Formula One," he added.

Red Bull scored a whopping 860 points in the constructors' championship and clinched the title way before the season ended.