In recent years, a world champion Max Verstappen in Formula 1 has seemed inevitable. But the dominance is broken. The season promises high tension.
Formula 1 history since 2000 is above all a history of dominance. Whether Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes – there was always a team in the premier class over long distances that has been much strongest for years. Seasons in which several teams argued for the World Cup title were rarely.
Most recently, it was mainly Red Bull and Max Verstappen that dominated Formula 1 almost as desired. The motorsport fans actually had little reason to doubt that this would remain so that this would remain so up to the next major rules for the 2026 season. But last year the Red Bull dominance crumbled completely unexpectedly. And now the premier class is probably facing one of the most exciting seasons in decades.
The early 2000s dominated Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. In the early 2010s, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel (even if they had to stretch at least partly) won four titles in a row. Then came the Mercedes era, which Lewis Hamilton gave six of his seven World Cup titles, followed by Red Bulls and Max Verstappen’s recent dominance.
Only occasionally several teams dueled around the World Cup. In 2006, especially with the Duel Ferrari against Renault, 2007 and 2008 with Ferrari against McLaren and 2021 with Red Bull, where Verstappen only secured his first title with an overtaking maneuver in the last round of the last race.
The fact that such scenes could soon take place again would have expected a Formula 1 observer almost exactly a year ago. As a reminder: After his exciting first World Cup triumph in 2021, Red Bull and Verstappen mastered the comprehensive rules of rule for the 2022 season. The result: Verstappen, in the following two seasons, largely confidently entered his titles two and three.
The 2023 season particularly stood out. Red Bull 21. Verstappen won from 22 season races alone won 19 racing victories, his teammate Sergio Pérez at the time won two Grand Prix.
The 2024 season actually offered no reason to doubt that the dominance of the shower group would continue. In fact, Verstappen was also able to win four of the first five races. But then the turn came: At the Grand Prix of Miami, Grand Prix number six of the year, Lando Norris triumphed in the McLaren and set the starting signal for an exciting rest of the residual season.
Verstappen also won five more races and at the end secured the driver’s World Cup, but that was also due to the fact that McLaren and Norris missed the start of the season and made too many mistakes in the further course of the season in order to be able to catch up.
The fact is, however, that the McLaren was the best car for long distances of the season. It is not for nothing that the British also secured the designer title. But not only that: Ferrari and Mercedes also opened the top and each won several races.
If you do not count on the first four Red Bull victories at the start of the season, you can see how balanced the season was over long distances: McLaren comes to six wins, Red Bull and Ferrari on five and Mercedes.
Since this year’s cars are expected to develop the racing cars from last year a year before the major rules in 2026, there will hardly be any major shifts in the power structure. Formula 1 is probably a season in which four teams provide victory cars. The test drives at the end of February seemed to confirm this impression, even if a comparison between the teams due to various and secret test programs is only possible to a very limited extent.