Very Annoyed Max

After two-plus seasons of total domination, Red Bull's Max Verstappen suddenly finds himself in a real Formula 1 fight. It's good news for everyone but the Dutchman

For the large numbers of relatively new fans who had been drawn to Formula 1 by watching Netflix’s Drive to Survive during the pandemic, an uncomfortable truth was dawning by late spring: the actual races were, again, not that exciting.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won four out of the first five races, only failing to triumph in Australia when he was knocked out early with a mechanical issue. This was a familiar pattern. After just edging Lewis Hamilton in 2021 for his controversial first world championship, Verstappen was basically untouchable in 2022 and stupidly so in 2023. He won 19 of 24 races last season, almost all of them at a canter, and everyone knew the title was decided after about a month.

Long-time F1 fans would say this was just part of the sport’s long tendency toward single-driver dominance. Hamilton won six titles in a row before Verstappen’s rise, Michael Schumacher had a similar stretch, as did greats like Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and on and on.

But if you were only just now paying close attention to F1, it was kind of weird: once the chaos of the opening lap had unfolded, if Verstappen was out in front the race was essentially over unless something shocking happened. During most races the broadcast team would settle into a pattern of discussing the battles for points elsewhere on the track and every now and then someone would mention that Max was still way out in front. You almost expected Verstappen to jump out of his car at the end of the race with a blanket that he had crocheted between laps 15 and 52.

And so, after a couple of months of the 2024 season, we were on familiar ground: Verstappen miles ahead in the driver standings, but maybe the battle for second place would be interesting.

Then something strange happened. Or a series of somethings, more likely. The other teams caught up. Mercedes, and especially McLaren, made improvements to their cars that significantly closed the gap to Red Bull. For the last few races, the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been the fastest cars on the grid, a development that would be a little like the Toronto Blue Jays suddenly leading the American League East. Whaaaat?

And Max is none too happy. A cantankerous fella at the best of times, the 26-year-old Verstappen has been an absolute grouch in recent weeks. During last weekend’s race in Hungary, won by Piastri, Verstappen profanely complained about strategy calls over the team radio and bitched about the role played by Hamilton in a collision between the two.

Asked after the race about critics who said he had gone too far in blasting his team over the air, Verstappen responded demurely: ‘They can all fuck off.” Very Dutch. He has since toned it down a touch, saying, not unreasonably, that Red Bull has been successful in part because team members are allowed to air it out around one another. No one worries about hurt feelings. He also said, more on brand, that people who didn’t like his language should turn down the volume on their televisions.

It meanwhile emerged that Verstappen was up until 3am on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix taking part in “simulated racing” — which is a fancy way of saying video games — with his e-racing team. This caused some mild controversy, in which various Red Bull people said it was no big deal because Max just slept in — but he wouldn’t do it again anyway. Then Verstappen himself said he had won before after staying up late on the console, but there were no more e-races that conflicted with the F1 schedule so it was all fine. All in all, a very modern scandal.

All of which sets up what should be an intriguing finish to the F1 season, with 11 of 24 races yet to go, and Sunday’s race in Belgium the last before the mandated summer break period. For the Formula 1 honchos who might have been worried that many of the new fans might drift away during all of that Red Bull dominance, go back to other pursuits where the outcome wasn’t pre-ordained, the rise of McLaren and Mercedes has been a godsend.

Despite the drama, Verstappen still has a big lead. He’s benefitted from the fact that several cars have improved all at once, instead of one guy emerging as a main rival. Max has seven wins on the year, and six other drivers have one. All those other guys splitting the wins means that Verstappen has remain well out ahead of Norris in the overall standings, even as he has gone through his worst stretch in more than three seasons. Norris, who still just has one career win to his name, is the betting favourite to win on Sunday in Spa, and you can get Verstappen at 4/1, which speaks to how good the McLarens have been over the last stretch of races. But Max is still a 1/6 favourite to take the world championship, which implies an 85% chance of winning. Essentially, Verstappen built such a big lead over the first two-plus months of the season that Norris would have to go on an incredible heater to overtake him. Still, it should be fun to watch him try.

Perhaps more significant is what this all means for the coming season. Red Bull began this year embroiled in controversy after a former employee accused team principal Christian Horner, one of the stars of Drive to Survive, of “controlling” behaviour. He was cleared, but there were suggestions of a behind-the-scenes power struggle at Red Bull, which were underscored by the announcement that superstar car designer Adrian Newey would be leaving the team after the season. All of this seemed a little silly while Red Bull was winning every race, but Horner’s position looks a lot less unassailable today than it did even a month ago.

Verstappen isn’t just racing for his fourth straight world title, in other words. He’s probably driving to save some people their jobs.