'It's going to be really tough for Ferrari and Mercedes to get closer'

Nico Rosberg believes Red Bull Racing's rivals are going to have a tough job making up ground. The 2016 world champion foresees a dominant period for the team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

With the drivers' and constructors' world titles already in their pockets, Red Bull Racing can look fully ahead to 2023. In the United States, the Austrian racing stable took first place among teams for the first time since 2013, and just after a rule change. This is a good foundation for the coming seasons.

Red Bull will dominate

''Red Bull are the dominant force at the moment in the way that Mercedes were in all these past years. They have the car, they have the development rate during a season, reliability now, they have the driver who's the best or the equal best in F1 right now, they have the strategy - always nailing it all the time. It's just all coming together in an incredible way, the engine seems to be awesome too,'' said Rosberg at Sky Sports.

Ferrari and Mercedes will do everything in their power to close the gap with Red Bull in 2023, as Hamilton already stated that he does not believe this is already the age of Verstappen. The Brit would love to win his eighth world title himself yet, but his former teammate doubts that is realistic.

Mercedes behind

''It's definitely in a period now where it's going to be so difficult for any other team to come close again, even next year, the way it's going at the moment because they have such momentum. It's going to be really tough for Ferrari, or even Mercedes to get closer. For Mercedes, the Achilles heel is that straight-line pace, my goodness are they slow on a straight, especially compared to Red Bull.''

So although the German hopes his former team can get it back on track and fight for the world title in 2023, he does not hold out much hope. A lot will depend on straight-line speed. This year, the W13 lost far too much ground on the competition there, so the design will have to change a lot to be more competitive on different circuits in 2023.