It’s no secret that in the past few races the gap between Redbull and McLaren has decreased significantly with Lando Norris challenging Max Verstappen for race wins on multiple occasions.

However, more often than not Verstappen has came out on top while his teammate Perez struggles to even finish in the top 10 which begs the question, are Redbull still the fastest team in F1?

Finlay McSporran
Published: 16:53, 2nd July 2024

Redbull came into this season off the back of the most dominant display in the sports history last year, winning 21/22 races in what was definitely the fastest car. This momentum continued into the first race of the 2024 season as Verstappen lead home his teammate for a 1-2 in the opening race with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz crossing the line 25 seconds later in 3rd.

Besides a mechanical DNF for Max in Australia, this momentum would continue up until the Miami Grand Prix where McLaren brough an upgrade package to their car, however this didn’t seem to change much as Verstappen dominated the early stages off the race.

That was until a crash between Magnussen and Sargeant brought out the safety car just before Norris made his pit stop, allowing him to change tyres and re-join ahead of Verstappen, who had already made his stop prior to the safety car, and now looked ready to retake the lead.

However that never happened, as Norris disappeared out in front from Verstappen who had no answer to the McLaren pace, allowing Norris to cruise home for a maiden victory in F1.

While McLaren looked to have the fastest car that day, there was a lot of scepticism over whether it was down to Redbull being slower than usual, as prior to the safety car Verstappen hit a cone on the side off the track which may have damaged his car resulting in a performance loss.

McLaren’s pace was confirmed at the next Grand Prix at Imola as in the closing stages off the race Norris closed right up to the back off Verstappen who seemed to be struggling with his tyres, however he just managed to hold off the charging McLaren, crossing the line just 0.7 seconds ahead of Norris.

This has became a bit of a trend this season, with Verstappen dominating the early stages of the race only for Norris to reel him in towards the end, as the Redbull seems to struggle on it’s tyres.

But it’s not just McLaren that’s been challenging Redbull this season. Ferrari have also looked quick, particularly during the Monaco GP where Charles Leclerc won his home race with teammate Sainz in 3rd as Ferrari looked to have the quickest car that weekend, while Redbull struggled as Verstappen finished 7th and Perez DNF.

This race highlighted perhaps Redbull’s biggest weakness, slow speed corners. This was seen last year as well During the Singapore GP, where Redbull were noticeably of the pace with neither cars reaching Q3, allowing Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to take the only non Redbull win off the season.

Even Mercedes have looked quick at times, with George Russel grabbing pole position for the Canadian GP, and more recently, winning the Austrian GP last week, courtesy of a crash between Norris and Verstappen who were fighting for the lead of the race.

But while Verstappen has been fighting for race wins week in week out, the same can’t be said for his teammate Perez who has struggled to finish in the top 10 most races and sits 5th in the standings with 118 points compared to Verstappen who currently leads the driver’s standings with 237 points.

Verstappen has a history of beating his teammates, many of whom have had great Careers at other teams however when they come to Redbull they just can’t get anywhere near Him. This has happened to many drivers such as Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and now Sergio Perez, suggesting that the Redbull isn’t as fast as people think it is, and that their dominance can be attributed more to Verstappen’s incredible talent rather than the performance of the car, as he is rarely outperformed by any of his teammates.

But his talent can only take the team so far, and with the rest of the grid closing in quickly Verstappen will be challenged more often as we saw at the previous race in Austria where he collided with Norris while fighting for the race win, which had echoes of the 2021 title fight between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

This set’s up an exciting year for F1 and with Silverstone coming up this weekend the pressure on Redbull to keep up their winning ways will be higher than ever as the 2024 season approaches the halfway mark.

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Formula 1