Ex-Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believes that Mercedes would have avoided enduring a winless season in 2023 if Max Verstappen had been behind the wheel.
Verstappen maximised the superiority of Red Bull’s RB19 car to produce a record-breaking 2023 campaign that comprised 19 victories from 22 races and a huge total of 575 points.
Meanwhile, Mercedes struggled for the second consecutive year under the current regulations after electing to begin last season with the failed ‘zeropod’ concept.
Although it abandoned that solution midway through the season and pipped Ferrari to second, the German marque trailed a substantial 451 points adrift of Red Bull.
With Ferrari capitalising on the champion’s troubles in Singapore to bag the only non-Red Bull victory, Mercedes ended a season without a win for the first time since 2011.
And despite clinching third in the Drivers’ Championship, Ecclestone believes Hamilton, who is on a drought dating back to December 2021, was partly accountable.
“Hamilton failed a bit,” Ecclestone is quoted as having told the German publication BILD.
Ecclestone also criticised Mercedes’ George Russell, who admitted that 2023 marked “one of the worst seasons of my career” after only recording two podiums and lagging 59 points behind Hamilton.
“Russell wasn’t as good as he thought he was either,” the 93-year-old continued. “Still, they shouldn’t have lost so dramatically.”
Prior to Red Bull’s recent run of championship success, the Milton-Keynes-based squad had been unable to match Mercedes, who logged eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships upon the switch to V6 turbo-hybrid engines from 2014.
Ecclestone praised Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner for assembling the current operation that has proven practically untouchable across the past two seasons.
Along with Mercedes, the former F1 supremo is also convinced that Verstappen would have prevailed if he had been driving both Ferrari and McLaren’s 2023 challengers.
“They [Red Bull] have patiently endured Mercedes dominance, replacing each weak link one by one, developing the best team, the best design, the best car and the best driver,” he added.
“Christian Horner has done an excellent job. Max is currently the benchmark in every field.
“You could also put him in a McLaren, and probably a Ferrari or a Mercedes, and he would still win.”
Red Bull will launch its 2024 charger, the RB20, on the 15 February, with Mercedes set to pull the covers off its revamped W15 machine a day earlier at Silverstone.
