Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis has got a piece of bad news for F1 fans. Even before the 2024 season begins, Dennis has proclaimed that the Austrian team may seal the championship this season too. Revealing insights on the RB20’s development as an insider of the team, the Formula E champion cited that RBR has an “extremely fast car” for this year too. Thus, all fans wishing to see some more competition against Max Verstappen in 2024, relative to last year may feel disappointed.
Talking to Mirror Sport, Dennis stated, “We’ve got an extremely fast race car again at the Red Bull team. I would expect us to become champions again, unless someone like Ferrari or Mercedes somehow manages to find about a second [per lap] overnight”.
Even the British driver knows how Max Verstappen was relentless in claiming 19 wins from 22 races last season. So, he reiterated that 2024 could be more of the same, rubbing more salt for fans wanting to see more competition in F1. Dennis said, “I think it’s going to be quite a dull season in Formula 1 with Max probably dominating“.
The RB19 was an impeccable piece of machinery that enabled Verstappen to put on a clinic of F1 dominance. The 26-year-old went on a 10-race winning streak and demolished several records, in a supremely reliable and quick car. As Red Bull is looking to further enhance their car concept for the RB20, many expect the Dutchman to likely dominate in 2024 too.
Be that as it may, other teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren are trying their level best to catch up with RBR. However, the deficit to the flawless Milton-Keynes outfit may be too much to bridge over 3 months, as Dennis claims.
How are Red Bull and Max Verstappen in the best position for 2024?
The F1 field might have closed up behind Red Bull to a large extent. Still, there is a big gulf of performance deficit for other teams to just be consistent behind the RB cars, let alone beat them on Sundays. To add to all the teams’ misery, the Austrian team has got additional wind tunnel time this year, which they lost courtesy of their cost cap breach penalty in 2022.
So, experts believe that it will only bolster Red Bull’s development for 2024. There are new concepts that Mercedes and Ferrari will bring to the track in 2024. As a result, it could throw a spanner in the works for the Milton-Keynes team to aggressively develop and cope with a sudden rise from these teams.
Even McLaren, after witnessing a stupendous improvement in the second half of 2023, could be a dark horse to challenge RBR. However, with the wind tunnel time and Adrian Newey’s brilliance, Red Bull is in the best position to tackle such challenges.
All in all, it is difficult to predict how dominant or vulnerable Red Bull may be this year, before pre-season testing. There is an outside chance of other teams throwing up a surprise and being at par with the Bulls. But until the testing happens and the first race weekend comes around, the Austrian team looks like the strong favorite.
