Domenicali points to McLaren as proof gains can be made in 2024

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has voiced his expectation that the Formula 1 grid will see closer competition during next year's campaign - and pointed to McLaren as an example.

Red Bull concluded a dominant Formula 1 season in Abu Dhabi last weekend with its 20th victory of the year, winning the Constructors' Championship by 459 points ahead of Mercedes.

Max Verstappen also sealed his third F1 title and was unchallenged en route to the top spot in the standings.

It marked statistically the most dominant season in F1 history - but Domenicali is confident of a closer fight occurring next year.

“I think so,” he told Sky Sports when asked if he expects a tighter field in 2024.

“Even if as always I'm a guy that doesn't like to speak because there's always a lot of people who are speaking and then have been contradicted.

“But I'm sure that that's the aim of all the teams to try to show the level of their engineering, the level of their capacity and capability to improve.

“There are two years that are really crucial because then we're going to have a change, maybe related to the new balance of the power unit and so on.”

Domenicali calms concern over Red Bull dominance

F1 has operated under a budget cap since the 2021 season which has led to suggestions that starting the campaign on a strong foot is crucial due to having limited resources to develop the

Despite Red Bull's dominant season, Domenicali pointed to McLaren's progress throughout the year to counter the argument after the Woking-based squad rose from back-of-the-grid competition to consistent podium contention by the end of the year.

“With regard to the sporting side of it, I would say congratulations to Max,” Domenicali said.

“It was something impressive in terms of maturity in terms of standards, to Red Bull, but also what I would bring home for that is on the sporting side once again, [there are] two elements.

“One - to the ones that will say with a budget cap you cannot develop the car, I would say McLaren proves that is not right.

“You saw qualifying [in Abu Dhabi], 20 cars in less than one second. So qualifying, we are very, very close.

“Of course, race pace is different. And I think that these will be the major things that we're going to see different next year.”