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Formula One | A topsy-turvy first half sets up for an intriguing home stretch
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Red Bull started the year looking mighty and expected to cruise to the world titles, but now has rivals McLaren and Mercedes breathing down its neck; if McLaren continues its recent form, it could very well clinch its first constructors’ crown since 1998 and knock the reigning champion off its perch
Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL38 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 28, 2024 in Spa, Belgium.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
The 2024 Formula One season marks an important moment in the sport’s history.
This year is the 75th edition of the championship that started in 1950 and will be the longest, with 24 races across five continents.
Following the recently concluded Belgian Grand Prix, more than half the season is done after 14 races, and teams have now headed into a much-needed month-long summer break.
So now is a good time to analyse the season that has gone by, and in this mid-term report card, The Hindu looks at the big winners and losers.
Winners: The Fans
Interest in F1 peaked in 2021 when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were locked in an intense championship battle that went down till the last lap of the last race of the year and was decided under controversial circumstances.
Since then, the fans have been starved of a proper championship battle in the previous two years as Verstappen cruised to his second and third driver’s championship in a canter.
In 2022, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari offered some fight early in the year before their challenge fizzled. But 2023 saw the most dominant campaign in the sport’s history: Verstappen won 19 out of 22 races, and Red Bull won 21.
So, when the Dutchman got off the blocks in commanding fashion at the start of the year, winning four out of the first five races, fans feared another boring year.
However, McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari — on odd occasions — have closed the gap to Red Bull and come back strongly in the last few months to make the races entertaining. After winning seven of the 10 races, Verstappen has not been on the podium in three of the last four events. Red Bull’s competitive edge has been erased, and the field is bunched up. The race result is not a foregone conclusion, and the fact that three teams can fight for a win has meant there are many variables in play, which makes it unpredictable and exciting.
Look who's consistently making the top three in 2024 👀👇#F1pic.twitter.com/qZMYsIhbmv
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 4, 2024
McLaren: The second-most successful team in the sport’s history has had a challenging decade.
Since 2012 – the last year the team fought for regular wins and the title – they have had to deal with many setbacks, both on track and off. Following years of underperformance, the Woking-based outfit has finally managed to turn around a corner this year. The former champions started 2023 poorly but made significant strides around mid-season and finished the year strongly by competing for podiums regularly.
The team has continued that trajectory in ’24, and McLaren has become a thorn in Red Bull’s side so much so that it might have the best all-around car across different circuits.
The team’s journey has been the inverse of Red Bull’s in that it started slow in the first few races, and a significant upgrade in Miami helped it become a consistent contender. Over the last two years, it has been impressive that whenever the team has brought new parts, it has improved the car’s performance. This shows an outfit that works well in the factory and can utilise resources efficiently.
At Miami, Lando Norris got his maiden F1 win and McLaren’s first since 2021. Since then, the Papaya-coloured cars have often been the fastest on race days. However, the team has not been sharp enough operationally and left a few wins on the table due to strategic errors and driver mistakes. Within no time, McLaren has reached a stage where it can genuinely fight for the constructors’ titles this year, where it trails Red Bull by just 42 points. The team’s strong driver line-up of Norris, second in the driver’s standings and Oscar Piastri, who took his maiden F1 win in Hungary, can give Red Bull a run for its money.
If the form guide of the last six races persists, the team is on course to win its first constructors’ title since 1998.
Mercedes: The German marquee dominated the sport from 2014 to 2021 but struggled over the last two years since the start of the new regulations that came into force in 2022. The team started 2022 with a revolutionary concept for its car, but it failed to deliver the results.
The car suffered from bouncing, making it uncomfortable for the drivers and suffered from a lack of consistency across the various tracks. The Mercedes had a very narrow operating window in which it appeared competitive, but once it fell out of that range, it was stuck in a no man’s land to be the third or fourth-best car.
Mercedes started the year behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. However, mid-season upgrades, including a new front wing, have allowed the Silver Arrows to be competitive and fight in the front. The result has been that the former champions have won three out of the last four races. While Mercedes doesn’t have the quickest car on the grid, it has two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who can maximise everything and bring home the result.
Hamilton showed why he is still considered the best in the business when he won the British GP in mixed weather conditions where he hardly put a foot wrong. In Belgium, Russell showed he could be great at tyre management to pull off a one-stopper and win the race on the road. Though he was eventually disqualified as his car was below the minimum weight limit marginally in the post-race checks, the pace he had should give him confidence.
Losers:
Sergio Perez: The most challenging thing in F1 is when a driver, however good, is paired against a generational talent in the same machinery. Extraordinary world champions can make even Grand Prix winners look pedestrian. It is what Perez is undergoing at Red Bull. The Mexican is not the fastest over a lap in qualifying but is an excellent racer on Sunday, and his ability to manage his tyres is a trait that can pay rich dividends over 300 km of race distance.
However, since being paired with Verstappen, Perez’s form has gradually worsened over the last four years. If 2023 was bad, where he won only two races and just about finished second in the standings, this year has been disastrous.
When Red Bull had a considerable advantage, as in the last two years, it didn’t have to fret about Perez’s performance. However, this year, the 34-year-old’s poor form is starting to cost Red Bull valuable points in the title battle. Red Bull is often a one-car team, with the three-time champion doing the heavy lifting while Perez is not qualifying high enough to be in contention for podiums.
Of the top four teams, he is the weakest among eight drivers. In June, team boss Christian Horner extended his contract and hoped it would help his driver’s form. But that hasn’t been the case. There were suggestions that the team considered dropping him after the Belgian GP, where he started second and finished seventh but has decided against it for now. But whether he sees out the season is still a big question mark.
Alpine and Aston Martin: Beyond the top four teams, Alpine and Aston Martin are the best in terms of resources and workforce. Alpine, owned by the Renault group, is a works entry of an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), while ambitious billionaire Lawrence Stroll owns Aston Martin. Stroll has pumped vast sums of money into new infrastructure in recent times. Last year, Aston started the season by being the second-fastest car, and Fernando Alonso raked in the podiums. However, through the year, Aston’s upgrades failed to deliver and slipped to fifth. The team is even worse off this year, fighting for minor points placings and has received a massive setback to its aspirations of becoming a championship contender.
Alpine, meanwhile, is a dysfunctional hot mess starting from the top. The team has gotten into a football manager syndrome, hiring and firing team principals, and is now into its fourth leadership change in as many years.
It has also been hemorrhaging senior staff and key technical people, showing it is not a great workplace. On Wednesday, the team announced a new team principal, Oliver Oakes, to replace Bruno Famin, who had been on the job for less than 12 months. To make things worse, disgraced former Benetton and Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore has been named advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo for the F1 operation.
Briatore was banned from the sport for his role in the 2008 Singapore GP scandal, though it was later overturned on appeal. As Renault’s team boss, he was accused of asking his driver, Nelson Piquet Jr., to crash on purpose to trigger an early Safety Car, which would help teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race. Renault quit the sport after the scandal broke in 2009 before returning in 2016.
'The top four teams are out of reach… so ninth is like a bit of a win for us'
Fernando Alonso was satisfied with points at Spa, praising Aston Martin’s one-stop strategy 💪#F1#BelgianGPhttps://t.co/epeJ7UkKPX— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2024
Alpine is one of the three works F1 teams alongside Ferrari and Mercedes, and its performance, eighth in the standings, is a stinging indictment of the management.
The Enstone-based squad has a great history, winning titles as Benetton in 1994 & 1995 with Michael Schumacher and as Renault in 2005 & 2006 with Alonso. But Renault/Alpine’s stewardship of the outfit has made a mockery of the sport by not taking the job seriously.
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