From the 'fantastic 3' to the 'monopolistic 5'
The long run of Red Bull dominance – which perhaps now could finally be countered, at least from time to time, by Ferrari – has overshadowed a striking fact that emerged from the first three GPs of the 2024 Formula 1 season. The starting grid is in fact divided into two very distinct 'sub-leagues' as perhaps it had never happened before.
Once upon a time we spoke of Formula 1 and Formula 1.5 to distinguish between the three top teams – Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes – and the rest of the group. Now though the division is even clearer in terms of performance and arithmetically even more precise: between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia the teams that are not Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin have scored just ten points. RB achieved six in Australia; four, split between Jeddah and Melbourne, Haas.
Never since 25 points were awarded for a victory have the teams occupying positions from sixth to ten scored so few points after three races. Last year, after the same events, the points achieved were 23 and all the teams had already moved up the rankings with at least one top-10 finish.
Never so few points for the 'second tier'
Never since 25 points were awarded for a victory have the teams occupying positions from sixth to ten scored so few points after three races. Last year, after the same events, the points achieved were 23 and all the teams had already moved up the rankings with at least one top-10 finish.
| Season | Total number of Teams 6th-10th after 3 GPs | Team in points after 3 GPs |
| 2017 | 22 | 8 |
| 2018 | 26 | 9 |
| 2019 | 27 | 9 |
| 2020 | 22 | 9 |
| 2021 | 14 | 7 |
| 2022 | 36 | 9 |
| 2023 | 23 | 10 |
| 2024 | 10 | 7 |
Limiting our analysis to last seven seasons, those with only 10 teams present on the grid, we can see how the 'peak' of points at the bottom of the grid occurred in 2022, with the advent of the new regulations. From that moment on the figure has always decreased. The advancement of the regulatory 'cycle' seems to confirm a critical trend for the results collected by the teams at the bottom of the group: looking at the table, in fact, you can see how even going towards the conclusion of the previous 'cycle' – which ended in 2021 – the quantity of points collected at the beginning of the season by the second-tier teams has constantly decreased. It will be interesting to understand the evolution of this data in the next races of championship.
#divided #points #6th #team
