2023 Formula 1 Constructor Predictions

Photo by Chris Graythen from Getty Images

Today is the day the final 2023 livery is revealed, and we are less than a month away from the first weekend in March.

Which means it is almost time for the new season of Formula 1.

Last year, I ranked my picks for the constructors championship and got it very wrong.

This year, now that I have a year of the new regulations under my belt, it should go a little bit better.

Without further adieu, here are my standings predictions for the 2023 Formula 1 season.

10. Williams

I wish I could be nicer to Williams.

After all, despite being a British staple, they are now under American ownership and have an American driver racing for them. They’re the true American F1 team.

But, I need to be unbiased.

Williams were dead last last year, they have a rookie in Logan Sargeant racing for them and had a very late change in team principal, with Jost Capito leaving and James Vowles coming from Mercedes to take over.

Now, I really like James Vowles a lot and think he can do great things at Williams, and I like Logan Sargeant’s talent as well as Alexander Albon’s.

But this year isn’t the year.

9. Haas

Haas gave up on their 2021 season to prepare for 2022, and the results looked promising! They had a lot of speed early in the season.

But as the year went on, they started to get slower and slower in regard to the rest of the field.

The teams surrounding them have more of a budget to improve, so I don’t have high hopes for Haas this season.

There’s also the big question on if Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg can get along.

They’ve had issues in the past…

8. Alpha Tauri

This is going to be an interesting year for Alpha Tauri.

Yuki Tsunoda, a driver Red Bull believe has a lot of promise, is now the top dog as Pierre Gasly has left for Alpine. Will he be able to finally match that promise?

Gasly is replaced by Nyck De Vries, who is a former F2 champion and had a great one off performance in Monza last year, but is still a 28 year old rookie.

I’m not fully sure what to expect.

But I like the other midfield drivers better.

7. Aston Martin

The battle between who I think would finish between 6th and 7th was actually a pretty tough choice, but in the end I settled on Aston Martin.

The main issue I have is their driver lineup.

On one side, you have Lance Stroll. A driver who I actually like more than others and I think has a good amount of talent, but can’t seem to avoid accidents over the course of a season.

On the other side, you have Fernando Alonso. Alonso is maybe one of the greatest drivers of all time on pure talent, but pisses off every single team he works with and is very particular on how he wants to race.

Aston Martin is easily the biggest boom or bust team.

It might work perfectly. It might go down in flames.

I just can’t see it going well this year.

6. Alfa Romeo

Alfa would have easily been 6th, and maybe even fought for 5th, if Fred Vasseur had stayed.

But Vasseur left to become team principal at Ferrari, so a late change in team principal made it a little bit harder.

Still, Valtteri Bottas showed last year that he is still a great driver as long as you aren’t comparing him to the greatest driver of all time, and Zhou Guanyu was a very pleasant surprise to me last year.

I trust the Alfa hierarchy to stay stable and to have a solid season.

5. Alpine

Now, we get to the top tier of the midfield.

Alpine finished above McLaren to clinch 4th last year, and should have run away with it without reliability issues.

But those reliability issues do still exist, and now they have a teammate pairing in Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly that could be explosive.

Those two famously do not like each other, and I don’t think I need to explain to F1 fans what that could do to a team.

Hamilton & Rosberg, anyone?

The French team will take a step back in 2023.

4. McLaren

And now, the top of the midfield.

McLaren started 2022 in a terrible, terrible way. They were way off the pace of the top tier midfield drivers.

They also had to deal with the struggles of Daniel Ricciardo who had quite a few tough performances that left points on the table.

Despite all of that, they still only finished 14 points behind Alpine last year.

Now they have more improvements on a car, and a new driver in Oscar Piastri to pair with Lando Norris.

And I know Piastri is just a rookie, but he won the F2 championship as a rookie.

Other drivers to win the F2/GP2 championship in their rookie season are some guys like Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

And they turned out alright.

3. Ferrari

The 2022 season looked so promising for Ferrari.

They were fast in testing, they secured a 1-2 finish in the first race of the year, and they were neck and neck with Red Bull at the beginning of the year.

But as the season went on, they got farther away from their championship rivals, and actually ended up closer on pace with Mercedes by the end of the year.

They made a team principal switch to Fred Vasseur, which is a move I like.

But I can’t ignore the backwards step they took.

2. Mercedes

Mercedes in 2022 had more or less the exact opposite season that Ferrari did.

They started dreadfully, with many people wondering how the 8 time reigning champions got it so wrong.

But again, as the season went on, they found more and more progress and were able to compete for wins, including George Russell getting his first ever win at Brazil.

Going into 2023, Ferrari has a new team principal and were lacking momentum.

Mercedes have the same team principal and had a full steam of momentum.

I expect big things from Mercedes this year.

1. Red Bull

In Formula 1, there is a history of teams during regulation changes.

Back in 2000, F1 introduced new engine regulations. Ferrari nailed it right out of the gate and had an era of complete dominance.

In 2014, it was Mercedes nailing the new regulation changes and it led to the most dominant era we’ve ever seen in the sport.

Well, Red Bull nailed the 2022 regulations, and I’ve been watching this sport long enough to know what that means for the future.

Mercedes will take a big jump in 2023, but it won’t be close enough to compete with Red Bull.