McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown believes Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s period of near-unconditional dominance will end as the balance of power in Formula 1 changes and racing becomes much more unpredictable.
“On the one hand, it’s clearly dominated by one driver, and that’s something that hasn’t happened in Formula 1 for a long time. Thanks to Max for that, his performances deserve to be respected,” Brown said when speaking in the Australian newspaper appeared. KTM Summer Grill podcast. “But behind Max the rivalry has reached an all-time high. Last year, riders from five teams reached the podium seven or more times, the first time in history that this happened.
There were cases when teams that took 9th or 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship reached the qualifying final – I will not say that this happened regularly, but quite often. Where outsider teams used to be three seconds behind the leaders, now the entire peloton is within one second.
Overall, I don’t think the rivalry in Formula 1 has ever been at a higher level and I think it will only get more intense. Yes, Max worked wonders behind the wheel of the RB19, and this made the battle for victories a little more predictable than we would all like. But look what happened behind him: we were only ninth at the start of the year and ended the season second.
In addition, Aston Martin was second fastest in the first races, then finished fifth and was then able to recover. The teams are doing a great job, so I think the level of competition in the championship is very high, and once one of us can catch Max, Formula 1 will be like we’ve never seen before.
McLaren is taking the next step forward this year, although it remains a mystery what Red Bull will be capable of. When did they stop upgrading last year’s car to start building a new one? It’s probably still quite early, so we’ll have to wait until we see what new wonders Adrian Newey has in store before we know where we stand.
But at the same time, Mercedes and Ferrari have everything they need to succeed, they are excellent teams. It would not surprise me if at the end of the year it turns out that Mercedes has improved so much that Lewis Hamilton will fight for his eighth title. In general, no one should be written off before the start of the season.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
