F1 2023 DRIVER AND TEAM

STANDINGS PREDICTIONS
Written By: Mikel Leiva Prediction Accuracy: 50% Published: December 12, 2022

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes W13 from preseason testing (3)

With the 2022 season finally coming to the end seeing Max Verstappen
and Red Bull as the runaway champions, all eyes are now fully
focused on the 2023 season. With the drivers in place, prize money
allotted, and wind tunnel time set, it's all up for grabs on who takes
the title this year, and it might not be who you’d expect.

Bottom 2 Teams Predictions:

No surprise here, I think that in 2023 Haas and Williams will finish in
the bottom 2. Although Haas started the year out strong with a P5
finish, the performance just hasn’t been there consistently enough to
be considered a top 8 team. Don’t get me wrong, after finishing the
season with 0 points in 2021, their jump to 8th place with 37 points is a
noteworthy accomplishment. But given the size of the team and the
resources available to them, I simply don’t see them getting higher
than 9th next season.
 This leaves Williams in a sad, yet all too familiar, last place. It’s a
shame a team as historically successful as Williams has been reduced
to the laughing stock of the grid, getting last place 4 out of the last 5
seasons they’ve been a part of. I want to hope that they won’t get last
again in 2023, but given their inability to cope with the new
aerodynamic regulation changes in 2022, I’m almost certain that their
losing streak will continue into 2023.

9. Haas
10. Williams

Midfield Team Predictions:

The Midfield is a little more complicated. When it comes to P6 and P7,
it doesn’t get much closer. With both teams finishing the 2022 season
level on 55 points, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo were pretty evenly
matched. Starting off the season extremely well, Alfa Romeo looked
like a potential top 4 team. In just the first race, they managed to
bring home a double points finish with Valterri Bottas in P6 and
rookie Zhou Guanyu in P10. However, these results did not last
throughout the season. While they looked strong in the beginning of
the season racking up 51 points in the first 11 races, they only
managed to score 4 points during the second half of the season, a
huge decrease in results.

Aston Martin, on the other hand, were able to come back from a poor
start to the season to score the same amount of points as Alfa Romeo.
Starting the 1st half of the season with only 18 points, rather than
getting worse, they improved vastly. This uptick in performance
gives me hope that they will be able to continue this form into 2023
and keep improving as time goes on. Additionally, with their new
facilities finishing construction, they should be able to use the
technological advantage to climb up into 6th place for 2023.
As for Alfa Romeo, I think that the downward trend will also continue,
except in a more intense manner. I think that, given the huge dropoff
of performance and their smaller team, they will drop 2 positions in
the standings and end up finishing 8th.

But then that begs the question: who will get 7th? Given their success
in the past and their connection to their sister team Red Bull, I think
that Alpha Tauri will get back up to 7th. Admittedly, the team had a
pretty rough 2022, dropping from 6th to 9th in the wake of the new
regulations, however, with a relatively strong driver lineup of Yuki
Tsunoda and Nyck Devries for 2023 and given their connection to Red
Bull, I think that they will be able to climb back to 7th in 2023.

6. Aston Martin
7. Alpha Tauri
8. Alfa Romeo

With McLaren and Alpine going toe to toe for 4th throughout the
entirety of 2022, I think the two teams will be fighting for the same
spots next season. With both teams having similarly competitive cars
and both hiring new drivers next season — Gasly to Alpine and Piastri
to McLaren — how the new drivers perform will be far more important
in deciding who will take 4th.

With Lando Norris bringing home 122/159 of McLaren’s points last

season, the only reason they didn’t beat Alpine was because of the
underperformance of Daniel Ricciardo. Managing only 37 points over
the whole season, Ricciardo’s poor performance from 2021
unfortunately carried over into 2022. With rookie Oscar Piastri taking
his place for the 2023 season, McLaren’s 2023 driver lineup should be
way more competitive than their 2022 pairing. Winning Formula
Renault Eurocup, Formula 3, and Formula 2 in his first season (one of
 only six in history to do so), Piastri looks like the perfect pick for
McLaren’s 2023 season.

This isn’t to say Alpine’s all French driver lineup this year is by any
means weak. With Alpine veteran Esteban Ocon and Alpha Tauri
prodigy Pierre Gasly teaming up this year, Alpine’s driver lineup is as
strong as ever. Ocon has been a solid driver all throughout his time at
Renault/Alpine, and Gasly’s previous performances at Alpha Tauri
have been nothing short of exceptional. However, in 2022, Gasly’s
season was slightly hampered by a worse car, with Alpha Tauri
getting 9th. Whereas before Gasly was able to pull out surprisingly
stunning performances in uncompetitive cars, 2022 seemed to be
somewhat of a dud for him. With no standout performances
throughout the entirety of the 2022 season, it makes me wonder if
he’ll be back to his usual form or if he’ll crack under the increased
pressure of racing for a better team.
4. McLaren
5. Alpine

Top 3 Team Predictions:

Now on to the top 3. Unsurprisingly, I think that the fight for the
constructors podium will almost certainly be between Mercedes,
Ferrari, and Red Bull, however, I think the order will be shaken up
quite a bit. With Mercedes’ early season struggles, no one expected
them to be challenging Ferrari for second place by the end of the 2022
season, especially considering Ferrari’s explosive start that year.
Ferrari’s numerous internal struggles, bad strategy calls, and a severe
dropoff in pace, however, shifted them from potential championship
winners to a dicey second place. Given these problems, their
offseason will almost definitely suffer, affecting their 2023 car, staff,
and drivers. Red Bull and Mercedes’ lack of these problems coupled
with their constant improvement throughout the 2022 season gives
me confidence that they will be the primary title contenders, leaving
Ferrari in a lonely 3rd place.

When talking about who will walk away victorious, it’s easy to say
that Red Bull will follow up their blowout in the 2022 season with yet
another dominant season; however, when factoring in their reduced
wind tunnel time due to their breach of the cost cap in 2021 and
Mercedes’ excess of time due to their 3rd place finish in 2022 (2), I
think Mercedes will have just enough momentum to clinch the title
and return to the top of F1. With a driver lineup pairing together 7x
World Champion Lewis Hamilton and sensational young talent
George Russel, if Mercedes can deliver a competitive car, the
championship is almost definitely theirsDespite their ‘zero-pods’
sidepod design looking weak at the beginning of the year and their
initial struggles with porpoising, their rapid upward trend in
performance over the year gives me hope that they can challenge for
1st place in 2023.

1. Mercedes
2. Red Bull
3. Ferrari
I’m fully aware that some of these takes are pretty… risky. However,
given the ever-changing nature of the sport, I think that all of these
predictions are definitely at least somewhat feasible. As all
predictions go, we’ll see just how right (or more likely wrong) I was.
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