World Champion Max Verstappen feels that those teams who got the technical regulations wrong in 2022 will always be playing catch-up in Formula 1. Verstappen's Red Bull team aced the new ground-effect regulations, with the RB18 claiming 17 wins from 22 races. 15 of these belonged to the Dutchman, who wrapped up a second world title. In contrast, Mercedes – who had won 15 of the 16 available titles since the adoption of the turbo hybrid engines in 2014 – struggled with the W13, claiming only a single race win after a fundamental design flaw. Lewis Hamilton also went winless for the first time in his F1 career. As such, Verstappen believes that teams such as Red Bull will have an in-baked advantage going forward.
Verstappen reflects on new regulations
"You see this when the regulations change and some teams hit it spot on," Verstappen explained to Viaplay. "Once you hit it spot on and you know what you are doing, you more or less work from there and you make small steps [forward]. "But when you get it wrong, you really have to reinvent and try again and you're always behind and then you have to try and catch up. "You saw that with us in that it took a few years [to challenge Mercedes]. "We didn't have a good engine but once we had that sorted out, we worked on the car and once you bring all that together, you are finally more or less there, but it took us a few years. "Maybe with these regulations, it is less complex but you are still on the backfoot and you need to catch up. "But while they tried to catch up, we're also trying to improve, so that's what we have to try and keep doing and hopefully show that again [in 2023]."
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