Meet the Teams

After last year’s thrilling victory, World Champion Max Verstappen will again start the FORMULA 1 STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 as favourite. Throughout the course of last year the Red Bull was the class of the field and the Milton Keynes outfit are expected to retain their superiority into the new season.

Led by team boss Christian Horner with design guru Adrian Newey alongside him, Red Bull dominated last season, winning the Constructors’ Championship by more than 200 points from Ferrari. As the longest-serving Team Principal on the grid, under Horner’s stewardship Red Bull have the advantage of continuity and enjoy some of the best resources of any team in Formula 1.

The speed of the RB18 was in part thanks to the strength of the power unit — a joint collaboration between Red Bull Powertrains and Honda. With the Japanese manufacturer still a key player behind the scenes, more performance is expected from the team’s 1.6-litre V8 over the coming year. Sadly, though, Red Bull start 2023 without their charismatic founder Dietrich Mateschitz, as the Austrian entrepreneur passed away last October.

On the track, despite starting only fourth on the grid at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last year, Verstappen drove superbly to hunt down and beat his old karting rival Charles Leclerc in a thrilling, high-speed duel. The pair passed and re-passed each other until Max claimed the top spot just three laps from the end. He took the chequered flag just half a second ahead of Leclerc to record his first of a record 15 wins in 2022.

His team-mate Sergio Perez will be looking to achieve his first podium finish in Jeddah. After crashing out of the inaugural race in 2021, the Mexican came back strongly to grab pole position in qualifying at the Red Sea venue last year but lost out in the race to finish fourth overall. ‘Checo’ will be one to watch as he is a renowned street track expert. So far in his career he has won in Monaco, Singapore and on the streets of Baku — so he’ll be considered another one of the favourites going into this year’s FORMULA 1 STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 on 19th March.