We’re around a third into the 2024 F1 season and until a couple of races ago, it did look like it would again be a very one-sided affair, with Max in his Red Bull having claimed all pole positions so far, winning 5 races, and looking unstoppable on the way to his fourth consecutive world championship title. 

And then came Emilia Romagna in Italy, which Verstappen did win but not quite like before, where Max wasn’t even close to the podium. Ever so slowly a bit of excitement has returned – what has happened? To recap for those who may have gotten tired of following this every other week (you have my sympathy), it’s really two teams that have made notable progress and have gotten a bit too close to comfort for Red Bull. 

The first one is Ferrari, currently second in the championship and the team that so far had been closest to Red Bull. And with two great drivers, it’s both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc who at least to some extent give Verstappen a run for the money. Sainz’s improving results showed a strong correlation with Ferrari’s decision to sack him, replacing him with Lewis Hamilton, in 2025 and could perhaps be seen as his pride having been hurt. Personally, I think it’s more a case of a great driver in an improved car. 

Leclerc’s results seem to validate that theory and at no time more so than last week in Monaco when he won his home race for the first time, having previously not even been on the podium in the Principality. Leclerc is one of a few thousand Monegasques so this was also the first time a native won the very special Monaco race, and did so in quite a dominant way. 

The second team that has come closer to Red Bull, perhaps even more so than Ferrari, is of course McLaren. Here Lando Norris has led the charge and nowhere more so than in Miami where he won his first race of the season, his fourth podium for the season. Oscar Piastri is also finding more speed in his car, with a first podium finish in Monaco where he was second. 

So what about Red Bull? Well, when Norris won in Miami in the first days of May, Max finished second and Perez fourth. And then in Monaco, Verstappen wasn’t on pole for the first time this year, starting six. Perez, also a first for this year, was however eliminated in Q1, starting impossibly far back. Of course Monaco is a very special race and not really indicative of things to come, but the team confessed to the car having a problem when driven on curbs which obviously penalized lap times, and Max also hit a wall in qualifying, ruining his chances of starting higher up. For a driver never making mistakes, that’s telling.

I may be grasping for straws here and of course Red Bull is still the leading team this season with a very healthy lead both in the team and driver rankings. The most likely scenario is no doubt still that Max and Red Bull win both titles. But Perez’ renewed performance dip is worrying, and there’s little doubt that Verstappen feels both McLaren and Ferrari breathing down his neck more than in the first part of the season. In that sense, the coming races will be very interesting, especially Barcelona on 23 June, since that is the next real driving course.

Further down the field, not much has changed. Unfortunately Mercedes hasn’t found the same speed as Ferrari and McLaren, and now rank clearly behind the two. Further down, Alonso does what he can in the Aston Martin car, with the team is a solid fifth in the championship. Even Stroll manages to score a few points here and there, knowing that Aston Martin no doubt has the most unbalanced driver line-up of all…). As for the rest of the teams, there really isn’t much to mention.

We’ll see over the next races how this pans out. Can Max preserve his lead and for the team’s sake, can Perez find his speed again? Will Leclerc be able to build on Monaco and keep that competitiveness over the coming races? Or will Lando Norries be the hungrier one, extending his nice podium run? I guess the season does have some excitement in it, after all!

PS. Make sure you don’t miss the documentary “Senna” on Netflix, a nice portrait of the man who was perhaps the greatest of them all. It also serves as a reminder of how very different the F1 sport was 30 years ago. Not to take anything away from the drivers nowadays, but the level of courage of those guys… You’ll see what I mean if you watch it!