A summer look back at the F1 season or How Red Bull is taking advantage of its rivals’ setbacks so far

Thirteen races down, nine to go. As this year’s Formula 1 season heads into a well-deserved holiday, it’s only right to look back at the events of the past first part of the season. A season that not only witnessed a radical change in technical regulations, headlined by the return of ground effect, but also an unexpectedly steep increase in on-track battles. These changes, plus many more, have so far produced one amazing season, but one that for many is already over.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leads the standings comfortably by eighty points over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But just 32 points separate the Monegasque from sixth-placed Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

All eyes will therefore be on the top five behind the reigning world champion, who is rightly proving his extravagance this year. But, let’s be honest, that extravagance is highly compounded by Ferrari’s incomprehensible failures.

Scuderia dominance? Let’s keep our feet on the ground for now..

The start of the year in Bahrain has surprised spectators on many fronts. The spectacular racing confirmed the theories that the new Formula 1 allows a car to better follow the other. Although the number of overtaking manoeuvres was below average, the closely watched duel between Verstappen and Leclerc was a feast for the eyes.

Some might argue that these two were only able to overtake each other on the run-up to the slow corners of the circuit. That is, in places where you can only overtake in one way or another.

But everyone’s chin was left hanging when Ferrari triumphed twice in the desert. Yes, they were helped by glitches in both the Red Bull cars of Verstappen and Pérez, both of which were uncompromisingly taken out in the last four laps of the grand prix. That put Lewis Hamilton on the podium, which we wouldn’t have expected at all given Mercedes’ form in pre-season testing.

Red Bull has traditionally been strong on twisty, slow circuits. However, victory at super-fast Jeddah showed the direction the Milton Keynes fighters were heading. It was with Ferrari close behind, but the tifosi were wringing their hands. For the first time in four years, their beloved team had a car that could be truly competitive.

Leclerc’s dominance in Melbourne, Australia, only confirmed this. Add to that a not-quite-strong Mercedes and the crumbling Red Bull of Verstappen, who had to bite his second retirement of the season, and you have the Monegasque in the lead by 34 points over Mercedes’ George Russell, who only scored his first real podium in Australia, not counting the farce of Belgium last year.

What have we got here? Are we going back to 2002? But experience leaves everyone hanging. If there’s anyone who can lose titles and hand them to others on a silver platter, it’s Ferrari..

What did I tell you?

Leclerc’s mistake on lap 54 of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola and subsequent sixth place finish almost a minute behind the victorious Verstappen heralded the gradual beginning of the Scuderia’s collapse. Red Bull was unstoppable in Italy, scoring the maximum possible championship “pips” without a single point.

Once again, the opening race in Miami was victorious for Red Bull and Verstappen. The two Ferrari cars of Leclerc and Sainz occupied the remaining positions on the podium, the incredible speed of the red bulls on the straights gave the Scuderia drivers no chance of an overtaking manoeuvre.

But the Barcelona race was the first nail in the tifosi’s hopes. Leclerc retired from the race lead due to a fault with the MGU-H system, allowing the Red Bulls to record their second double victory of the season. Not only that, Verstappen and Red Bull surged ahead of Leclerc and Ferrari to top spot in the standings. “But what the heck, Monaco is supposed to be Ferrari’s easy mark, right?” the tifosi must have thought.

Wrong. Ferrari put on a strategic circus for the viewers in the principality and in front of the screens. On a drying track, Leclerc was sent to the pits twice at two-lap intervals, first for intermediate tyres and then for hard-spec dry tyres. Ferrari took a gamble with Sainz, whose extreme wet tyres were swapped straight to dry tyres.

In the end, the Spaniard lost no positions compared to qualifying, but Leclerc’s pit stops cost him dearly, falling behind both his teammate and both Red Bulls. Pérez benefited the most from the four drivers, scoring his third career win and first in this year’s championship after a nerve-wracking end to the race.

Azerbaijan’s Baku then deepened the grief of all Ferrari fans as neither car finished the race after technical problems, while Red Bull again celebrated a double victory.

In Canada, Leclerc spun after starting from 19th place due to a penalty for using more power units than what is allowed for the season. The scepter of the leading driver for the Montreal Grand Prix was thus awarded to Sainz, but he fell just short of Verstappen, who triumphed for the sixth time in nine races.

After a promising start to the season, Ferrari never once stood on the top step of the podium. As a result, Verstappen and Red Bull enjoyed a comfortable lead in both championships. Even Mercedes, who always waited on the sidelines until one of the leading pair of teams dropped out, was closer in points to Ferrari than Ferrari was to Red Bull.

Ferrari wins again? Well, back to reality..

The phenomenal British Grand Prix saw the three top teams of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes in direct competition for the first time this season, with the latter’s form at Silverstone unexpectedly on the rise, especially in terms of race pace. What is even more astonishing is the fact that Ferrari and Carlos Sainz emerged victorious from this mega duel. However, they were greatly helped by Verstappen’s problems, which relegated him to a final seventh place.

What wasn’t too much of a surprise, however, was another mistake in strategy by Leclerc. He led from Sainz until the safety car was sent out with fourteen laps to go (yes, there was a chance of a Ferrari double win here). However, the decision not to call the Monegasque into the pit lane for new tyres, despite everyone doing so, was strange at best.

This left Leclerc to face attacks from his rivals on the new tyres for the final ten laps, resulting in an awesome advertisement for F1 racing. Leclerc would not have been too keen on this view though, dropping to fourth place on the older tyres.

The Austrian Grand Prix produced a rather surprising run. The Red Bulls were no match for the Ferrari cars on their home circuit. Verstappen was even passed three times by Leclerc right on the track, always after pit stops.

Leclerc eventually claimed his first win since the Australian Grand Prix and climbed to second overall, 38 points behind Verstappen. Pérez failed to finish the second of the last three races and the prospect of a championship was there if it existed at all.

The tifosi’s hopes rose again after two consecutive Ferrari victories. The race in France at the Paul Ricard circuit was even looking promising for Leclerc, who was tasked with maximising points for the team after an unauthorised engine element change at Sainz. But there was a terrifying moment on lap 18 when the cameras spotted Leclerc in the barriers.

The race was suddenly over for the 24-year-old Monegasque. Verstappen’s path to another victory was now open. But Red Bull could not celebrate too fervently. Mercedes took the remaining places on the podium after a very poor performance by Pérez, who struggled with the car.

As he took, there went Verstappen’s 63-point lead over Leclerc, whose terrifying screams on the radio after his accident must have woken up even those who like to fall asleep during F1 races and then make it known in every possible way on discussion boards.

A week later, Formula 1 moved to Hungary for the last grand prix before a four-week summer break. And once again, the Ferrari strategy team was on show, able to pull back the lead of Red Bull and Verstappen due to a botched qualifying session, with the Dutchman finishing tenth and his teammate Pérez even eleventh after problems.

Halfway through the race came the incomprehensible decision to change Leclerc’s tyres to a hard set that showed no ability to set fast times, a decision confirmed mainly by the Alpine team before Leclerc’s incriminating stop. Leclerc was so slow that he was easily replaced from the race lead by Verstappen.

Despite the Red Bull driver being given the clock, he was able to overtake Leclerc again. While Russell had the distinction of a debut first place start for Mercedes, no one could keep up with Verstappen. Well-timed pit stops helped. The reigning world champion drove to his eighth victory of the season and his lead at the top of the championship climbed to eighty points.

Verstappen dominates this year’s World Championship. He’s mainly due to the performance slump of Mercedes compared to last season and a lot of technical retirements and strategic mistakes at Ferrari.

But there is a positive that Ferrari can take into the summer break. Every time they have fought for the title in the last fourteen years, they have lost it towards the end of the season. This year, they are losing it in the middle of the season, so they still have time to somehow magically reverse their adverse fortunes. Although even the most optimistic of optimists may no longer believe in them..

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