One year can make a big difference in Formula 1.
Yes, Max Verstappen is still on course to win another world title. It would be a fourth championship for the Dutchman, unless Red Bull implodes.
But it is no longer a foregone conclusion that Verstappen will dominate the competition as he did last season, when some racing fans were quick to call the spectacle boring.
F1 has indeed lit up this summer as several of Red Bull’s rivals have improved enormously to erase the Austrian team’s advantage.
McLaren and Mercedes are direct threats to Verstappen, while Ferrari’s Prancing Horses are also close behind. The fight has produced some exciting and unpredictable races, such as Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, in which Verstappen finished fourth.
A week earlier, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris gave McLaren a one-two in Budapest while Verstappen finished fifth. The seven different winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP made this season the most competitive since 2012.
“It’s good. It’s really fantastic for the sport to have teams and drivers so close,” said Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who was declared the winner in Belgium after team-mate George Russell was disqualified due to his car’s non-compliant weight.
“The quality of the riders at the top is really incredible today,” added the seven-time world champion.
Lost advantage
Last year, Verstappen scored an eighth straight victory when he won the Belgian GP and held a 125-point lead over teammate Sergio Perez. Verstappen would go on to set an F1 record with 10 consecutive victories and 19 wins in 22 races for the season. He has won 15 events in 2022.
Verstappen was just too fast.
Verstappen looked set for another easy title this year after winning four of the first five races. But he has since won just three of the last nine grands prix and has gone four consecutive races without winning for the first time since 2020.
This time, Verstappen goes into the summer break with a 78-point advantage over Norris with 10 races left in the season, which will resume on August 25 with the Dutch GP.
“We are looking forward to the summer holidays to have some time to relax, but at the same time we want to be better and faster, we want to find solutions,” Verstappen said after the race at Spa.
“We’ve had a great start to the season, our last races have been a bit more difficult, but we’re pushing to find a solution,” Verstappen added. “The next race will obviously be my home race at Zandvoort. It’s going to be a tough battle and tyre management will be at the heart of the event, but it will be great to be in front of my home crowd again.”
Multiple threats
Mercedes are starting the break on a high note with three wins in the last four races. Hamilton ended a long winless streak dating back to 2021 when he won the British GP in early July.
Russell followed that up with a win in Austria and they thought they had a one-two in Belgium before Russell was disqualified. That allowed Hamilton, who will join Ferrari for the next campaign, to extend his record to 105 wins.
“We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens and the Red Bulls at this stage with the start we’ve had to the season,” Hamilton said. “So for us to have closed the gap, it’s going to be quite a second half of the season.”
McLaren have been considered Verstappen’s main rivals since Norris took his first F1 victory in Miami in May. Since then, the two papaya-orange cars have taken five second-place finishes, in addition to their one-two finish in Hungary.
More good things are expected from the British team this autumn as the constructors’ title could swing.
Red Bull have a narrow 408-366 advantage in points. The situation is due to the poor form of Perez, whose future with Red Bull is uncertain despite his recent contract extension.
Ferrari should also be in the fight. Carlos Sainz Jr., who confirmed his move to Williams in 2025 on Monday, and Charles Leclerc have won a race this season, although they have lost some pace to the other three leading teams.