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2024 F1 Season Suddenly Looking Wide Open


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On June 23, Max Verstappen and Red Bull took a huge stride towards further domination of F1. The Dutchman’s success in the Aramco Gran Premio De Espana in Barcelona was his seventh of the season in just ten rounds. After that race, Verstappen found himself 69 points clear of Briton Lando Norris, the man he finished directly ahead of in Catalunya.

But if at that stage it looked like Verstappen was on a clear path towards a fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship, and Red Bull a third consecutive World Constructors’ Championship, now things seem far less certain.

It was Norris’ belligerent drive in Barcelona that helped announce the McLaren man as a serious potential challenger for the Championship, and indeed that has borne out.

Norris may still find himself 70 points behind the reigning world champion, but Verstappen has now not won a race since that victory in Barcelona and has only finished on the podium twice in five subsequent races.

Where the odds were well and truly on the Dutchman securing another World crown, now things are nowhere near as certain.

It was only a matter of weeks ago that the lines on Verstappen claiming another World Drivers’ Championship were as good as closed. But recent events on and off the track mean Canadian sports betting sites are rethinking their numbers. The Red Bull team must be getting nervous after Norris secured a sensational but also wholly convincing victory in the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen’s home track of course. Verstappen admitted as much after the race.

“This weekend was just a bad weekend in general,” Verstappen told the media. “So, we need to understand that. But the last few races haven’t really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming.”

Alarming is a word that Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko also used in the wake of Norris’ storming victory at Zandvoort. The sheer size of the winning margin – 23 seconds – seemed to be confirmation to the Red Bull motorsport organization that the team faced a real battle for the remainder of the F1 season. 

Verstappen enjoyed the near month-long summer break a healthy 78 points ahead of his British rival. And Norris had only secured one win in the campaign so far – a maiden F1 victory coming at Miami back at the start of May. Norris has now doubled his number of victories, but again it was the sheer manner of the win that will be unsettling nerves in the Red Bull camp.

As for the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren had already been slowly reeling in their Red Bull rivals after a string of poor results for Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez. A once imperious lead has now been cut to just 30 points. It’s a performance that Marko attributes to McLaren upgrades in which “steps are working very well”. At the same time, Red Bull upgrades have not seen the same results.

It all leads to a potentially thrilling end to the 2024 Formula 1 season after it earlier looking like another stroll to the title for Verstappen and Red Bull. Norris’ huge win in the Netherlands has only been bettered once this season, and that was by Verstappen in the opening race in Bahrain.

At that stage, it seemed inevitable that the Dutchman would claim a fourth consecutive World title, but now things look far different. And that’s even after Norris and McLaren somewhat messing up the start in the Netherlands, ceding first place to his championship rival.

Yet Norris had regained the lead before the first pit stops, and it was a position he never looked like relinquishing. 

As well as securing points for claiming victory in the race, Norris also bagged an extra point for notching the fastest lap of the race on his final lap. Crucially that meant he clawed back eight points on Verstappen. It’s a winning margin the Briton must continue to secure for the final nine races of the season if he wishes to overhaul Verstappen and claim his first World Drivers’ Championship crown. 

But there’s a lot of racing to be done between now and the final race of the campaign in Abu Dhabi in December. And that’s something that Norris has admitted himself. 

“I’ve been working hard the whole year and I’m still 70 points behind Max. So, it’s pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute,” Norris stated after the race at Zandvoort. “I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I’m doing now because there’s no point to think ahead and think of the rest.”

But the rest promises to be thrilling if the last few races are anything to go by. Certainly, closer than anyone could have expected after those first ten races of the season. 

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