BARCELONA, Spain — What a difference a year can make in Formula 1. Yes, Max Verstappen is still on track to win another world title – which would be the Dutchman’s fourth in a row unless Red Bull But it is no longer a foregone conclusion that Verstappen will dominate the competition and, in fact, many fans expect him to at least break a sweat.
F1 instead it has been lit up this summer as Red Bull’s speed advantage has disappeared thanks to major improvements from many of its rivals.
Four cars were brought in. Mercedes car And McLaren has emerged as a threat to Verstappen, while Ferrari‘Prancing Horses is right there too. That makes for exciting unpredictable races like Sunday. Belgian Grand Prix where Verstappen finished in fourth place.
A week earlier, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris had done it. one-two in Budapestwhile Verstappen finished fifth. Seven winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP have made this season the most competitive since 2012.
“It’s great. I think it’s great that the sport has such close teams and riders,” he said Lewis Hamiltonwho is declare winner in Belgium after Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified because his car was too light.
“The top riders today are really elite and amazing,” said the seven-time former world champion.
Lost advantage
Last year, Verstappen scored a eighth consecutive win by finishing first at the Belgian GP and heading into the summer break with a 125-point lead over teammate Sergio Pérez. Verstappen looks set to continue his F1 record-breaking run 10 consecutive wins and 19 wins in 22 races during the season. He won 15 races in 2022.
Verstappen looked set for another title run this year after winning four of the first five races. But he has since won just three of his last nine grands prix and has gone four races in a row without a win for the first time since 2020, when he became a dominant force in F1.
This time, Verstappen heads into the summer break with a 78-point advantage over McLaren’s Lando Norris with 10 races remaining. The season restarts at the Dutch GP on August 25.
“We are looking forward to the summer break and having a little bit of time to relax, but at the same time we are committed to getting better, faster and trying to find solutions as we go into the rest of the season,” Verstappen said after the race at Spa.
“We had a great start to the season, the last few races have been a bit more difficult for us, but we have worked hard to find solutions to do that,” said Verstappen. “Obviously the next race is my home race at Zandvoort. It will be a tough battle and it will all be about tyre management, but it will be great to be in front of the home crowd again.”
Multiple threats
Mercedes went into the break in good form, with three wins in their last four races. Hamilton ended a long absence from racing in 2021 when he won the British GP in early July. George Russell followed that up with a win in Austria. They thought they had a one-two in Belgium, before Russell crashed out.
That helped Hamilton, who will join Ferrari next season, take his winning record to 105 grand prix.
“We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, you know, with the way we started,” Hamilton said. “So for us to now wrap it up and turn it into, it’s definitely going to be a great second half of the season.”
McLaren have been regarded as Verstappen’s top rival since Norris took his maiden F1 win in Miami in May. Since then, the two cars have finished second five times, apart from a double-header in Hungary.
More good things are expected from the British team in the autumn as McLaren challenge Red Bull for the constructors’ title, with the Austrians holding a 408-366 point advantage. That’s due to Pérez’s poor performances, which have fuelled speculation that he could be replaced despite his contract extension.
Ferrari are also expected to continue to be involved. Carlos Sainz, who is seeking a new seat for 2025, and Charles Leclerc have won this season, even if they have lost a step behind the other three leading teams.
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