In 2023, one thing is clear for sure. The era of Mercedes‘ domination is over. But that isn’t the full story. As one era of Formula 1 comes to an end, another begins. For the fans, just one team winning takes the allure of the sport away. And that is exactly why there was so much hue and cry to stop the Silver Arrows. With 2022 regulations, that was achieved. But at what cost? Now, the fans have to be satisfied with Red Bull constantly leading the way. Further, with what we’ve seen from the Bulls in these three races, they are miles away from any palpable competition. But is Max Verstappen really as untouchable as we think?

From what evidence we have about the pace of the Bulls, it would appear that nobody is going to be able to catch Verstappen and Co., at least this year. However, according to a close paddock source, we all may have been greatly misled by the Milton-Keynes-based outfit.

Red Bull & Max Verstappen’s bluff called out

Sandbagging is one thing. However, brainwashing the competition to believe you are untouchable is a completely different ball game. And according to ex-Ferrari man, Rob Smedley, the Bulls have tried to employ this exact same tactic.

On a recent episode of the F1 Nation podcast, Smedley said, “It’s not like they are out-qualifying teams by a huge amount. Teams need to find time and the drivers need to maybe find a little bit of time, and importantly the trackside team needs to optimize the car, you know, for all of these teams that are behind Red Bull. But they are catchable, right? They are definitely catchable.”

“In the Qualifying sessions we have seen up to now, they are definitely surmountable.”

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This isn’t the first time Red Bull has been called out for this apparent feigning of pace. However, few still believe that the Bulls have been handed an unfair advantage.

Ferrari pull up Red Bull’s dirty past

The RB19 is a beast of a Formula 1 car. But is it really allowed to be? After the cost-cap breach, Red Bull was handed a hefty $7,000,000 fine and a 10% deduction in aero testing quota. However, even with such a big handicap, they were able to build this world-beater.

Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur reiterated this to Sky Sports F1. He said, “If you consider we will improve [the car’s performance by] a bit less than one second over the season in terms of aero, [and] you get a penalty of 10 percent of this, it’s one-tenth, it is [equivalent to a loss of] 0.1secs.”

“As it is not a linear progression, it is probably less, and as you are allowed to spend this money somewhere else, on weight saving and so on, for me the penalty is marginal.”

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Can anyone catch Red Bull and Max Verstappen this season?