According to former world champion Jenson Button, McLaren and Mercedes could potentially cause an “upset” in Formula 1 next season, and he does not believe Red Bull will be the dominant team again.
After yet another stellar season for Red Bull and Max Verstappen, former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button thinks there might be a “upset” in store for 2019.
Verstappen has romped to a third consecutive world title victory, winning 17 of the 20 races so far, and while Button admits it will be “difficult” to catch Red Bull he believes that both McLaren and Mercedes are “getting closer”.
“You don’t have the rule changes that we were lucky enough to have,” Button told Sky Sports News. “I also think the sport is even more competitive now. There are so many big teams fighting at the front and one tiny slip up and you’re the fourth-best team.
“So to catch Red Bull is difficult, but they are getting closer. Brazil wasn’t a great example but this second part of the season you have seen teams like McLaren, Mercedes both fighting very closely with the Red Bulls.
“Max has had that little advantage, but his team-mate hasn’t. We could have an upset next year. I don’t think it’s going to be all Red Bull’s way. This year was an exceptional year for that team, and I don’t feel it will be the same next year, which is what the sport needs. We need a little bit of a mix up.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, meanwhile, expects things to “become closer” next season but remains confident in his team’s ability to continue winning.
“I think that we’ve got a great car, we’ve got a great basis,” Horner said following the Brazilian Grand Prix earlier this month. “We need to keep evolving it, but of course, the returns are going to diminish because you’re hitting the top of the curve.
“And you can see it will concertina. It will become closer and that will stretch us more, for sure. But the team are very, very motivated. You can see nobody’s let off since we won the championship.
“Everyone remains totally focused. You must never stop getting better at everything. It was unfortunate, in my opinion, that we had to withdraw from this race [in Brazil] last year because we didn’t perform to our full potential. We believed that the setup wasn’t done properly.
“We therefore took the lessons from the previous year, put them to good use, and concentrated a car on the race.” It was a very successful weekend for us as we ended up with a pole, the sprint win, and the Grand Prix, with Checo [Perez] finishing third and fourth.”
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