At the beginning of the year, there was a sense of false optimism in the paddock: Red Bull had secured two one-two finishes in the first two races, and Max Verstappen’s DNF at the Albert Park circuit in Australia, where Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari, seemed like just a blip in a season of dominance.
The media and marketing personnel tried in every way to paint exciting challenges and a heated championship, but the comment “And this season is over too,” said by a Ferrari mechanic under the podium, was the perfect summary of everyone’s mood.
However, within a few months, the championship truly reopened, with four teams within a tenth of a second battling for victory each weekend. The revolution was clearly seen at the Dutch Grand Prix, when Lando Norris crossed the finish line more than twenty seconds behind the home favorite; a clear message signaling a shift in the balance of power. At Red Bull, the defeat was not taken graciously, and Christian Horner didn’t miss the chance to point out how things were at the beginning. “This race shows how quickly things have moved. Before, we were winning races by 20, 25 seconds, and in the first five races, Stefano Domenicali was asking us to slow down. Everything changed quickly, but that doesn’t mean the situation couldn’t revert,” the Austrian team principal told GP Blog.
