KARUN CHANDHOK

"We've missed this feeling - there's a buzz"

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As we get over the first third of the 2024 F1 season I think it’s fair to conclude that the chasing pack has started to make inroads into the Red Bull advantage. At the start of the season Max Verstappen was able to rattle off the pole positions with ease. At the opening three weekends he had a gap of about three tenths over the best non-Red Bull with the gap in China growing up to half a second.

Since Miami, however, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have all started showing better form and Max wasn’t on pole for three races in a row after sneaking ahead by just eight hundredths in Imola. This trend is perhaps better illustrated in the way that Sergio Pérez’s form has dipped. The Mexican qualified in the top two rows at four of the first six grands prix but his run through Imola, Monaco and Canada delivered 11th, 16th and 16th starting positions.