by VALERIO BARRETTA
F1 2024, fighting at the top
Charles’s Victory Leclerc in Monza has given enthusiasm to the Ferrari environment, already positively impressed by the weekend in Zandvoort, and further balanced the two world rankings. “Balance” is in fact a word that can well explain the 2024 World Championship: the Red Bull-Max Verstappen package, which started off like a rocket in the wake of 2023, is having unprecedented difficulties and now risks losing both titles in favor of Lando Norris and McLaren, with a sly Ferrari especially from a constructors’ perspective.
This World Championship, thanks again to the Monza GP, offers a statistical “pill” that testifies to the very close fight for the top. In fact, four teams have won at least three races in the championshipwith Red Bull leading the way with seven wins in 16 GPs, all of which were driven by Verstappen: the other nine are equally split between Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.
It is an event that in the history of Formula 1 has only two other precedents. It happened for the first time 50 years ago, in 1974when McLaren won four GPs and Ferrari, Lotus and Brabham followed with three victories. The repeat came in 1977: five victories for Lotus, four for Ferrari, three for Wolf and McLaren. The 2024 figure came at the 16th race and bows only to that of 1974 (Brabham’s third victory came at the 15th and final GP), while it “beats” that of 1977 (McLaren’s hat-trick came at the 17th race).
And if McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari…
The 2024 season still has time to set a record that would be almost impossible to beat in the future: if McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari won at least one more race each between now and the end of the year, for the first time in the history of Formula 1, four teams would have a poker of stage wins. An eventuality that, considering the current balance of the grid, cannot be ruled out at all.
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