Five motorsport predictions for 2023

Who will be the 2023 F1 world champion?

Well this is a tricky one to start with isn’t it? Do you go with your head or your heart? Well, we want to dream big this year, and we’re not holding back. Surely Max Verstappen, off the back of two successive championship triumphs, must be the favourite. But Mercedes looked like it was finally getting its car to work towards the end of last year, and you have to think that at some point Ferrari is going to be able to string an error-free season together.

To our mind, there are six drivers that could feasibly win the 2023 F1 championship. The Red Bull pairing of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, and Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are our main contenders.

The big change among these three teams is the arrival of Fred Vasseur as Team Principal at Ferrari. Just what an impact he will have on the performance of the team remains to be seen, but we’re willing to be optimistic and suggest he will bring the Scuderia together and tidy up the mess at Maranello.

For that reason, we’re picking a Ferrari driver as 2023 world champion, and that driver is Charles Leclerc. We’re backing him to learn from the mistakes of last year, notably those at the Emilia Romagna and French Grands Prix, and we’re expecting Ferrari to bring a better car than last year, one that can compete with and beat Red Bull and Mercedes.

Who will be the 2023 MotoGP world champion?

MotoGP has been a difficult one to call for a few years now, which is refreshing, because for the longest time the pinnacle of two-wheel racing has been dominated for the most part by two names: Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. While the likes of Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner were occasionally able to challenge, Rossi and Marquez won 13 championships between them in the 19 years following the turn of the century.

The last three years, without a standout dominant force, has made for a very different viewing experience. That said, there are three names that stand out from the rest, and each of them have claimed a championship apiece.

Joan Mir, the 2020 winner struggled with his Suzuki last season, and also missed four rounds after breaking his ankle in Austria. Could he bounce back in 2023? We’re not so sure. Next, we have Fabio Quartararo. The 23-year-old Spaniard hit his peak in 2021 when he beat Ducati’s Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia to the title. He put in another strong showing last year despite the superiority of the Ducatis to finish runner up in the standings. As long as Yamaha can keep up with the relentless Ducati march, you have to bet he will be one of the favourites again in 2023. Finally, we have Bagnaia, the 2022 MotoGP champion and star rider of the Ducati stable. It was by no means a perfect year for the Italian; he started the season slowly and had his fair share of accidents, but he saw off the challenge of his rivals, including fellow Ducati rider Enea Bastianini, to take the title.

However, we’re going to put our necks on the line and say that none of these three riders will be MotoGP champion in 2023. We think it will be Marc Marquez, and yes, we know that sounds a touch mad, but it’s good to think outside the box. Sure, the great Spaniard’s career has been severely hampered by injuries since his last championship triumph in 2019, but he looked like he was beginning to find some speed and confidence towards the back end of last year, so we think if he can stay fit, and Honda can overcome its dismal 2022 showing and produce a competitive bike, Marquez could still add to his title tally in 2023.

Who will be WRC champion in 2023?

Is this an easy one? Quite probably, but where’s the fun in just saying we think Kalle Rovanperä will win again? We do think that the Finn is the favourite, but Ott Tänak could take the fight to him.

The Estonian ensured we still had plenty to talk about in the WRC last year, even after his young Finnish rival had dominated the first half of the season. Rovanperä had all but confirmed the title would be his by the Ypres Rally in August, but Tänak refused to let it rest. His efforts, which included three rally wins and a further five podiums, were ultimately in vain, and it’s clear now that he was less than enamoured with his Hyundai i20N Rally1 car, as he announced he would be leaving the team before the season was up.

He has since confirmed he will be driving for the M-Sport outfit in 2023, and will be sincerely hoping that the promise shown in the Ford Puma Rally1 car when Sébastien Loeb won the opening round of the 2022 season will prove to be enough to allow him to challenge for the title this year.

However, with all that being said. We can see no further than Rovanperä doubling his championship tally by the end of the 2023 season. He was far and away the class act of the entire field last year, Tänak included, and often times looked to be utterly unbeatable. Even with a couple of wobbles at the Ypres and Acropolis rallies, including a hefty shunt, his superiority was never in question. Now with the confidence of his first title in his back pocket, we fully expect him to go even better this time around.

Who will win the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours?

Now this will be exciting. It feels like so long since we’ve had a genuinely competitive fight for outright victory at Le Mans. Toyota has held the monopoly over the world’s greatest race since Porsche and Audi both left what was an ailing LMP1 class. Now, with the switch to the new Hypercar formula, we find the pinnacle of endurance racing at a new dawn. 

Toyota will be there again, joined once more (hopefully) by Glickenhaus. But the list of new and returning entrants in the Hypercar class in 2023 includes Peugeot and Ferrari from WEC and Porsche, Cadillac, Acura and BMW from IMSA. This broad mix of GTP and LMH machinery is bound to make for a thrilling and ultimately unpredictable race for the overall win this year, and we cannot wait for all of these new cars to hit the track for the first time in both the IMSA Sportscar Championship and World Endurance Championship.

Back to Le Mans though, and which of these teams is going to take the top step on the podium. Well, Toyota is obviously the team to beat off the back of five successive triumphs, and clearly pretty difficult to overlook - but we’re going to anyway. Elsewhere, Peugeot was the first of the new teams to run its car in competition during the final few rounds of WEC in 2022, Porsche debuted its 963 at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, and the likes of Cadillac and BMW have been busy testing their cars behinds the scenes.

However, we are voting straight from the heart on this one, and proclaiming here today that it will be Ferrari that crosses the line first when the chequered flag falls on the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours. Not only does the 499 car look incredible with that striking red and yellow livery, but we really want Ferrari’s decision to build it to be justified so that we may see the Prancing Horse return to Le Sarthe for many years to come.

Who will win the 2023 Indy 500?

Talk about saving the most difficult one until last. Predicting the Indy 500 is like forecasting the weather in April. All we can reliably deduce is that there will be 33 drivers lined up on the grid and one of them will finish at the front.

It would be unwise to base any kind of prediction here on previous form, because the month of May tends to write its own form book separated from whatever else has been going in IndyCar in the run up to the event.

However, we’re going to base our prediction on the fact that Scott Dixon is incredibly keen to add a second Indy 500 win to his record. His determination was oh so clear to see during the 2022 event. He set the second fastest ever speed during qualifying to take pole by an absolute mile, and dominated the opening stages of the race before things started to unravel when he took a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

Needless to say, Dixon is going to be angling for revenge in 2023 to put right his failure from last year, and for that reason we are putting it down in black and white that Dixon will become a two-time Indy 500 winner.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.