James Vowles disagreed with his former boss Toto Wolff when he voiced his belief that it will be "very tough" for Red Bull to win every race this year.
The defending champions romped to victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing first and second while barely breaking a sweat. Such a dominant win send a strong message to their rivals that they might have to do something very special to stop Max Verstappen and his team again in 2023.
In fact, it had George Russell already waving the white flag of surrender. "Red Bull have got this championship sewn up – I don't think anybody is going to be fighting with them this year," he said after that race.
The Brit went on to add: "I expect them to – or they should – win every single race this season." Asked for his response to that statement in another interview, Mercedes boss Wolff said he agrees with his driver.
He said: "With my sporting aspirations, it was bad to see our deficit. We don't want to finish second, we want to win. But there is a team miles ahead. They are playing with the competition – they don't even have tyre wear. After the first Grand Prix I also believe that they will win every race this year."
Vowles spent several years working to beat Red Bull under Wolff at Mercedes. Now he is leading his own team, Williams, and has a different opinion on this subject.
He told reporters in Jeddah: "Do I think Red Bull will dominant the first part of the season? No, I doubt it. I think you'll see Ferrari will be a lot closer to them here and it will be at tracks like Silverstone, Barcelona, where Mercedes will be mighty as a result of what I know of that package.
"On balance across the season do I think they're the fastest? Yes, but they still have a wind tunnel deficit. It's not as big as I think it necessarily should be to balance things out, but it's still there.
"It will still mean across the season that you'll see other people moving towards them. And with the rules carrying over to next year, you have to keep developing this class, so things will close up."
