Coming off the most successful season in their history, Red Bull are the team to beat going into the 2023 Formula 1 season, which starts with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 5th March.

What	2023 F1 season
Where	Across the world
When	Sunday 5th March - Sunday 26th November
How to watch	Sky Sports and Channel 4
Constructors' Championship Odds	Red Bull 10/11, Mercedes 6/4, Ferrari 7/2, McLaren 150/1

The Milton Keynes-based team earned their fifth constructors' title last year - their first since 2013 - having done comfortably the best job of adapting to the sport's radically overhauled technical regulations, and they are 10/11 to retain their crown.  

Lead driver Max Verstappen showed his controversial maiden title triumph in 2021 was no fluke by dominating last season. 

The Dutchman won 15 of the 22 races from grid positions ranging from pole to 13th, leaving no one in any doubt that he truly is a generational talent. 

The 25-year-old is an 8/11 chance to claim his third consecutive drivers' championship this season and 21/20 to get his campaign off to the perfect start with victory in Bahrain. 

For the third straight season Verstappen is partnered by Mexican driver Sergio Perez. The veteran showed that he has enough pace to get under Verstappen's skin at times last season, but it would be a surprise if he is able to put together a serious championship challenge.

A new force arrives 

Red Bull Racing first joined the paddock in 2005 with a mission to put the fun back in Formula 1. The team ran a Star Wars-themed livery in Monaco in their debut year, complete with mechanics dressed as stormtroopers, but showed they weren't to be taken lightly with both cars picking up points in their debut race in Australia. 

The team made a huge statement of intent by signing pre-eminent designer Adrian Newey for the 2007 season, and the move bore fruit when they finished second in the 2009 Constructors' Championship following a significant rewrite of the technical regulations. 

The following four years saw Red Bull dominate F1, with Sebastian Vettel claiming four straight drivers' titles along with the team taking the constructors' crown on each occasion.

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Getting back on top 

A switch to hybrid engines for 2014 saw Red Bull dislodged from their perch, but promoting the prodigious Verstappen from the sister Toro Rosso outfit during the 2016 season proved something of a turning point. 

The then teenager won on his first appearance for the team in Spain, ending a 30-race winless run for Red Bull. 

Verstappen has continued to win at least one race per year since then, and became the first non-Mercedes driver to win the title in the hybrid era in 2021.

Prospects for 2023 

With the rules on car design having been merely tweaked for this season in comparison with 12 months ago, the cars will largely be evolutions of last year's designs, rather than brand new machines. 

However, pre-season launches have seen interesting innovations appear on some teams' cars. Exactly what they do and how they work is anyone's guess until we get some track action, but Red Bull have been intriguingly coy about releasing details about their 2023 challenger. 

Even their elaborate New York launch featured an unveiling of last year's car with the sponsors' stickers in slightly different places, leading to speculation about what they might have up their sleeve for testing and the first race in Bahrain.

A potential sticking point 

One of Red Bull's more dubious honours is that they have become the first team to be penalised for exceeding Formula 1's cost cap. 

Having been found guilty of a minor breach in 2021, they were handed a $7m fine and a 10% reduction in permitted wind-tunnel time, announced last October. 

Red Bull's rivals are not expecting the team to be greatly impacted by the punishment. Their aero package was already the best by some margin last year, while payment of the fine does not count towards this year's cost cap. 

It will undoubtedly prove a handicap to some degree, though, and with other teams having had a full season to understand where they may have gone wrong with their interpretations of the new rules, could Red Bull be vulnerable to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, who each claimed race wins last year? 

It's possible, but teams who emerge from a major rule overhaul with a significant advantage tend to keep it in the following seasons, and the Milton Keynes outfit look deserving of their place at the top of the markets.