Ex-F1 Driver Mark Webber Gives His Pick For 2023's 'Most Dangerous' Team

Former F1 driver Mark Webber says there's one team to look out for this year. While Ferrari and Mercedes are expected to come out of the gates strong, Webber thinks they'll be chasing the defending champions.

Despite facing a penalty for breaching the budget cap, Webber — who drove for the team alongside Sebastian Vettel from 2007 to 2013 — says Red Bull Racing is the clear front-runner.

“Red Bull are still the most dangerous team coming out of the blocks,” the Aussie told Autosport.

Of course, we have yet to see any of this year's cars, but Webber has seen enough out of the team's recent performances to know they're not going to lose much over the offseason.

“Actually, everyone has to lift their games in all aspects. We saw that Mercedes had great reliability, Ferrari of course less so. But Red Bull had good reliability and were strong at all tracks," said.

“And Max, it’s just ‘Formula 1 plus’ for him at times. I think the highlight for me was to see what he did through the field in Spa. That was just unbelievable.”

After stints with Minardi, Jaguar, and Williams, Mark Webber joined Red Bull in 2007 and went on to win 9 races including the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Could Penalties Harm Red Bull? Webber Doesn't Think So

That said, Red Bull will have less aerodynamic testing time to develop their 2023 car. Having won the constructors' championship, they're only allotted 70% of the aerodynamic testing limit, based on F1's sliding scale.

However, that pesky budget cap breach reduced that to just 63%. That means close competitors like Ferrari and Mercedes will have an even greater development advantage entering the season.

However, Webber — who recorded all 9 of his career wins with the Milton Keynes-based team — doesn't think Red Bull will be too affected.

“I don’t think anyone knows really how much that’s going to impact them, but I’m sure they’ve got enough creative people there to keep it going,” said Webber.

Considering they have aerodynamic and design genius Adrian Newey on the books, he's probably right.

Webber will get a chance to see if his predictions pan out firsthand this season. Webber runs a management agency and one of his clients is highly-touted McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri.

The F1 season gets underway in a little over a month, with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 5.

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