Lewis Hamilton hopes as many as five teams could fight at the front in Formula 1 in 2023.
Last year, new regulations saw a shift in the competitive order as Mercedes slipped back and Ferrari emerged as the closest challenger to Red Bull, who ultimately won both championships with ease.
In the closing races though Hamilton’s Mercedes team made strong progress, highlighted by a one-two finish at Interlagos led by teammate George Russell.
And the seven-time world champion is keen for the competition to close up in the upcoming season.
“I’d like to think that we [Mercedes] are going to be the ones that are competing with them and being able to beat them again, I do believe that for sure,” Hamilton told Formula1.com.
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“But I really hope Ferrari is strong, they’ve definitely had a difficult period but there have been some strong signs, obviously, that you’ve seen last year, which has been nice to see. And it’s been nice to see Ferrari doing well again.
“So, I hope that it’s more than a two-way battle this year. I hope there’s at least three of us. If not, surprisingly, maybe more. Like, why can’t McLaren be there, even Alpine has been doing amazing. So, we’ll see.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes such expectations come too soon for the upper midfield teams despite measures like the budget cap and the windtunnel scale.
“I think probably another two years,” he said on when the grid could close up.
“Even though we’re all kind of on the same money spend now, some teams have bigger infrastructures.
“We’re still waiting for our wind tunnel which is down the road to be done, which will be done here shortly, and a new simulator.
“So even though everyone’s kind of on an equal playing field from an annual expenditure standpoint, a handful of the teams have come in with a better technology infrastructure, which we’re catching up on and some other teams are, so I think that will need to happen.”
The McLaren chief also noted how the closest grids in F1 typically come after a period of stability in the regulations.
“Any time you have new regulations, someone gets it right, and someone gets it wrong,” Brown added.
“Then what ends up happening is everyone sees who got it right and they gravitate towards what they’ve seen, you know, kind of what works from an aerodynamic point of view.
“So if you look at Formula 1 historically, I think I might get my year wrong, but it was maybe 2012 which was the end of a regulation where you had a lot of different winners that year.
“So I think as these regulations stabilise, people will catch up. I think in a couple of years’ time, it’s going to be an awesome, awesome competition.”