Red Bull face BIG F1 title threat from one driver (and it’s not Lando Norris)
Red Bull face BIG F1 title threat from one driver (and it’s not Lando Norris)
Red Bull’s dominance of Formula 1 has been compromised.
The Milton Keynes-based squad has comfortably led the field ever since the regulation change at the start of 2022 which took F1 into a new era, nailing the shift to a new form of aerodynamics and operating from anywhere between a few tenths to a full second per lap ahead of their languishing rivals.
But now, thanks to a combination of their own development path becoming less obvious and the fact that the teams they had once left in their dust are making technical progress at a much greater rate, they face a genuine challenge at the top.
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The fifth round of the 2024 season in China, six races ago now, was probably the last time Red Bull had the outright fastest car on the grid. Since then Ferrari and Mercedes have both drawn significantly closer on sheer pace, taking pole position in Monaco and Canada respectively, but it is McLaren who have truly reined in the Bulls.
The papaya outfit have shot forward from the midfield to become the quickest team in a stunningly short amount of time, particularly impressive given they toiled towards the back at the beginning of the 2023 campaign and underwent significant changes to personnel and team structure into to halt their downslide slide.
McLaren won at Miami as Lando Norris took his first victory, and should probably have followed that up with success in both Canada a fortnight ago and Spain last weekend. Norris himself admitted he had the fastest car in Barcelona.
“Today we were the quickest - we had the best car out there and I didn’t maximise it,” Norris said after finishing second behind Max Verstappen despite starting on pole. “The start is down to me. With a good start we easily should have won.”
That Verstappen was still able to prevail in both Montreal and Barcelona is testament to the fact that, even if Red Bull no longer holds a pure pace advantage over its rivals, the Dutchman is driving at a level his rivals simply cannot match.
Norris may well have the machinery to duke it out with him, then, but his inexperience at the very front of the field means Red Bull and Verstappen are still relatively comfortable.
The threat that the leading team and driver face, then, is not from Norris, but from much closer to home.
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In Spain Sergio Perez once again failed to deliver a decent performance. The Mexican, carrying a grid penalty after he drove a damaged car back to the pits in Canada, was way off the pace of Verstappen and toiled so far down the field that he was unable to offer any kind of strategic use to his team-mates fight for the win.
The 34-year-old – whose contract with the team was renewed earlier this month, keeping him in his seat until at least the end of 2025 – has now earned just eight points in the last four races and hasn’t finished on the podium since that race in Shanghai six rounds ago.
He is a lowly fifth in the drivers’ standings, a whopping 108 points off Verstappen and behind both Ferraris and Norris.
Verstappen and Red Bull still boast leads of 69 and 60 points in the drivers’ and constructors’ standings respectively, but those advantages could be chipped away if it rival teams are able to consolidate their improvements, and if Perez continues to make very little contribution.
After the chequered flag, Team principal Christian Horner repeated what has now become a weekly post-race call for Perez to improve, saying: "Sergio had a great start to the year. We just need him to get back to that form that he had in the first four or five races. We know he can do it. It's just getting him into the right headspace to deliver."
Throughout his career Perez has demonstrated that he is a competent and quick Formula racer. He won a race and regularly finished on the podium with Force India in cars which were very rarely expected to challenge at the front, and tyre management, speed around street circuits and consistency have been particular strengths of his.
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Horner then is surely right that the issue Perez is suffering from is psychological rather than down to a lack of talent, skill or speed – he has demonstrated all of those in abundance since he first graduated to F1 in 2011.
But for now, those assets have been replaced by weaknesses in the form of poor qualifying pace, in-race errors and a clear lack of self-belief. The result is that Perez is hardly delivering any points of his own and is unable to help Verstappen maximise his.
Unless Perez bucks his own disappointing trend, his poor form rather than the menace of Norris will represent the biggest obstacle Red Bull face as they look to retain both titles.
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F1 Race Calendar 2024
-
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
-
GP JAPAN
5 - 7 Apr
Max Verstappen
-
GP CHINA
19 - 21 Apr
Max Verstappen
-
GP USA
3 - 5 May
Lando Norris
-
GP ITALY
17 - 19 May
Max Verstappen
-
GP MONACO
24 - 26 May
Charles Leclerc
-
GP CANADA
7 - 9 Jun
Max Verstappen
-
GP SPAIN
21 - 23 Jun
Max Verstappen
- GP AUSTRIA 28 - 30 Jun
- GP GREAT BRITAIN 5 - 7 Jul
- GP HUNGARY 19 - 21 Jul
- GP BELGIUM 26 - 28 Jul
- GP NETHERLANDS 23 - 25 Aug
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- AWS Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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