Owing to Red Bull’s inferior mechanical package in 2024, Max Verstappen is losing his grasp as the most dominant driver on the grid, and Alpine’s advisor Flavio Briatore is all for it.
The top three drivers in the Championship standings are separated by less than 100 points. Briatore admits to being entertained by the close competition, thanks to the resurgence of McLaren and Mercedes.
On the Formula for Success podcast, he tells Eddie Jordan,
“Max [Verstappen] is not the monster anymore because he has to fight with everybody if he wants to win the championship. I think for Formula 1, this is the magic.”
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Briatore explained how Verstappen winning almost every race from pole was a boring spectacle for fans in 2022 and 2023. But now that others have developed their cars to be as good as Red Bull’s, Verstappen hasn’t been able to replicate the same this season.
Verstappen is still driving at a high level, but since the RB20 is being rapidly out-developed by rivals, frustration is slowly creeping in. He has to do all the heavy lifting himself, and cannot single-handedly help Red Bull win the Constructors’ Championship anymore.
Jordan added that there were seven race winners in the first 14 races of the 2024 campaign, and Briatore tried to recall when this last happened, but he wasn’t able to do so.
Verstappen Not Thinking about the Championship Battle Just Yet
The Dutchman’s lead over second-placed Lando Norris is 78 points. Although the gap is closer than in previous years, the McLaren driver still has a lot of ground to make up. Most experts predict Verstappen to hold on to the lead at the end of the season, but feel it won’t be as easy as it was in the last two years.
Verstappen, however, disagrees. He feels none of his Title wins were easy. He said on F1TV,
“Maybe they looked easy from the outside, but they are never easy. If we win that championship, it would be fantastic. But it’s a very long road. So I don’t like to think about that yet.”
The 26-year-old is not concerned about the future. He realizes that Red Bull needs to find a solution to its poor pace and win a few races, which is why focusing on performance is more important for him and the entire Milton-Keynes-based outfit.
