Damon Hill has warned F1's front-running outfits that chasing down the dominant Red Bull squad in the second part of the season could come "at the expense" of their 2024 development.
So far, Red Bull has upheld its 100 per cent win rate in 2023, thanks to the hegemony of its seemingly unassailable RB19 which championship leader Max Verstappen has steered to seven wins this season, with teammate Sergio Perez delivering two victories to the team.
Mercedes, thanks to its progress of late, and Aston Martin have positioned themselves as the Milton Keynes-based outfit's closest challengers, with Ferrari now fourth in F1's pecking order.
As teams continue to rely on their development programmes to extract more performance from their designs, Hill fears that any leading outfit that sets its sights on catching Red Bull during the remainder of the season risks paying the price for its efforts in 2024.
"I think Mercedes have turned a corner, but the question is where the end of that development curve is going to peak," said Hill, speaking during his Halow Project charity event at Daytona’s Sandown Raceway.
"In F1 this year, the excitement factor is actually whether or not we are going to see for the first time a team win every single race.
"To close the gap significantly enough to put pressure on Red Bull, teams will have to devote resources away from the following year.
"We are already hearing some teams talking about next year and saying they are going to continue to upgrade.
"But they are better off putting their resources into next year’s car – so I don’t know [whether Red Bull will be caught] between now and the end of the year.
"You would hope they would be fizzling out a bit and the others would be pressing ahead and we would get some racing, but that is no good if it is at the expense of them not being competitive in 2024."
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In Canada last time out, Verstappen equaled the 41-win tally of the great Ayrton Senna, and all signs point to the Dutchman continuing his steam-rolling dominance over the summer.
Hill admits that his fellow F1 world champion is clearly in a league of his own.
"It is incredible," said the Briton. "He is astonishing. He is incredibly talented and he is so capable it’s frightening."
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