Sky Sports F1 expert Karun Chandhok has given his thoughts on the midfield teams and suggested Aston Martin could be closest to the top three, whilst hoping McLaren can put a tough testing period behind them.
The 2023 campaign begins in earnest this weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it’s obviously the first opportunity we all get to really see how the pecking order looks for this campaign.
Of course, things can and will change over the year but this weekend will set the tone for the start of the season at least, and every team wants to naturally get off on the right foot.
Whilst the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are aiming to challenge for race wins and the championship, several other teams in the midfield are aiming to close the gap, with Aston Martin, Alpine and McLaren among that group.
Of the three, meanwhile, it’s Aston who Chandhok believes could be closest to breaking into the top tier, whilst he is hoping that McLaren’s difficult testing will not be a sign of things to come:
“I’m properly proud of the fact that I actually wrote in my Autosport column, before testing, that I thought Aston Martin were going to be the best of the midfield,” Chandhok told Give Me Sport, “I was quite proud of getting that right! Well, I’ve not been proved right yet but, so far, I think I’m on the right path.
“I think the car looks good. Fernando is a huge asset for a team like that. The car looks benign, it looks compliant and it looks like it works in a range of weather conditions which helps – all of that is good for driver confidence.
“I think Alpine haven’t really shown their hand yet and they were a bit more conservative in testing, so we’ll see what happens when we get to the race weekend.
“I think the biggest surprise is sadly McLaren. So far, they, by their own admission, sound pretty downbeat. I hope they can develop their way out of the situation they’re in because we all want to see Lando and Oscar having a good chance to get in the points and get podiums and stuff like that, because they’re both supremely talented drivers.”
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