When the chequered flag fell at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix, it ushered in a respite of four weeks for Formula One fans.
Usually, for the sport’s faithful, the summer break is an agonising waiting period. Around this point, the season usually builds momentum, a pecking order is established, and one gets a sense of which teams are developing their car well and which outfit is stagnating.
The break also allows teams to regroup and drivers to recharge their batteries before the races come thick and fast towards the end of the season.
If a title battle is brewing, it also adds excitement as teams try to bring upgrades to stay in the developmental war as they search for glory.
Unfortunately for the sport, such has been the domination of Red Bull and Max Verstappen this year that none of these matter. There is little hope that a Red Bull car carrying the number ‘1’ won’t sail off into the distance when the season resumes in Zandvoort.
With ten wins out of 12 races, the drivers’ title has been a one-horse race in favour of the reigning two-time champion since he won his third race in Miami.
Spectacular
F1 peaked recently during the sensational 2021 showdown between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. Since the new aero regulations introduced last year, Red Bull has been spectacular, dominating the last one-and-half years.
At least in 2022, Ferrari and Charles Leclerc offered a token fight for the title in the early part of the season before it fizzled off. This year, from pre-season testing, it was evident that any opposition to Verstappen would come only from the car on the other side of his garage — Sergio Perez.
The Mexican is regarded as the number two driver, and there was a sense of false dawn when he won two out of the first four races and was just a handful of points behind Verstappen.
But those wins came on street circuits where Perez is generally good, and his hopes of a title challenge rested on his performance on more conventional courses that would come later in the European season.
And as expected, from the Miami GP, Perez’s campaign completely derailed, and he went through five races where he failed to qualify in the top-ten even as Verstappen quickly racked up wins.
The reigning champion has now won the last eight rounds and can equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins when the season resumes at his home race, with the Dutch Grand Prix, where he has won the last two editions.
Meltdown
At the halfway point, it is painfully clear that as good a driver as Perez is, there is a vast gulf between a capable Grand Prix winner and a World championship driver as he has melted in the title fight.
Consider this stat for example: in the best car on the grid at his disposal, which is nearly unbeatable, Perez finds himself only 40 points ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, which started as the second-best car but is now fighting to stay in the top-ten.
Even as much ink is spilt on how Perez’s lack of performance has made the title fight moot, it should not take credit away from Verstappen.
Since 2021, the 25-year-old has been relentless, hardly underperforming in what the machinery is capable of. Since 2021, in the races he has finished, Verstappen has been off the podium only four times (once in 2021 and thrice in 2022). Even in two of those races, damage that was not his fault caused him not to finish in the top three.
Such relentless consistency over a long time is probably unmatched in the sport’s history. A third title this year will put Verstappen in illustrious company and secure his place in the sport’s pantheon of greats.
The key to Verstappen’s success is his ability to extract everything from a car that, in the hands of a good driver, is a handful to drive, as Perez is experiencing.
The Red Bull is tailor-made for him, with a very sharp front end that gives the driver great confidence when he first turns the steering wheel into a corner, even if the car’s rear end is unstable. A car with a nervous back-end can take the confidence out of a driver, but Verstappen revels in it as he knows he has the ability and talent to deal with it.
With the title being a foregone conclusion, there are other interesting storylines to watch when the season resumes.
The battle for the second-best team has been quite impressive. Alonso and Aston Martin started the season strongly, with six podium finishes for the Spaniard in the first eight races and established itself as the second-best team.
However, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have started to fight back in the last few races, with Mercedes going past Aston to second place in the constructors’ standings. Ferrari also has hit back and is just five points behind the British team. The battle for positions two to four will be the one to watch out for when the season returns.
Another interesting storyline to follow is the revival of McLaren. The team started with a hopeless car, maybe the second-slowest on the grid, and as a result, sacked its technical director too. However, since the Austrian Grand Prix, the team has had a remarkable change in its fortunes and has been on the podium twice and, on some tracks, was even the second-fastest behind Red Bull.
If McLaren can keep up that form across a wide range of tracks, it will be another mix in the already engrossing mid-field battle. While McLaren has been slowly rebuilding its house, its nearest rival Alpine is in complete disarray and appears rudderless, having fired its CEO, team principal, and chief technical officer.
Further down, we also saw the return of Daniel Ricciardo, who was fired from McLaren last year and started the year as a reserve driver for Red Bull. The Australian replaced the underperforming rookie Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri. It will be interesting to see how Ricciardo does during the rest of the year as he hopes to replace Perez at Red Bull in 2025, if not sooner.