Why one F1 legend has “most confidence” in Ferrari being Red Bull’s main rivals

F1 legend Gerhard Berger believes Ferrari are best placed to be Red Bull’s nearest challenger in 2024.

After duelling it out with Red Bull for much of 2022, Ferrari took a step back into the following season after their new design philosophy didn’t work out.

Ferrari slowly improved as F1 2023 progressed, performing best at low downforce circuits such as Spa, Monza and Las Vegas.

Ferrari and Mercedes are expected to make radical changes to their cars for 2024 as they look to reduce the deficit to Red Bull.

Berger - who raced in F1 between 1984 and 1997 - thinks Ferrari can close the gap to Red Bull if they “take radical steps”.

“In Formula 1 things always turn out differently than you think,” he said in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport.

“If Red Bull keeps its team together like this, it will be difficult to catch up with them. It can only work if the others take radical steps.

“I still have the most confidence in Ferrari. They were better in the second half of the season than the results showed.

“You should never underestimate Mercedes and [Lewis] Hamilton, and McLaren is also doing a very good job.”

Berger also disagreed with the view that Max Verstappen’s dominance is boring, explaining that it evens creates “a certain enthusiasm”.

“We already said in Schumacher’s time: This can’t last long. But such dominance also creates a certain enthusiasm, even for me,” he added.

“You just get caught up in perfection. That the driver doesn’t make any mistakes again, that the team completes every pit stop in the best time, that the car doesn’t stop again and the engine stops again.

“It’s fascinating and you just want to know whether it will be like that again next time.”