Ferrari and Mercedes are two of the oldest, grandest and most successful teams in Formula 1. In 2022, their hopes of more world championships were dashed by Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team. This year, things got even worse.
Where Ferrari won four times last season, in 2023 the Italian team won just a single race — the only time Red Bull lost all year, in September’s Singapore Grand Prix.
At Mercedes, the team that won eight championships in a row from 2014 to 2021 did not win any races. This was the first time Mercedes went winless since the 2011 season.
But both teams had come into 2023 believing their cars could challenge Red Bull’s RB19 machine. At Ferrari, the new team boss, Frédéric Vasseur, felt that hopes were “a bit too high.”