Red Bull domination taking F1 back to a one-horse race

When the new generation of Formula 1 cars debuted at the Bahrain Grand Prix last year, there were two teams clearly out at the front – Ferrari and Red Bull. Though Ferrari’s challenge died out as the season progressed, they were on Red Bull’s heels by winning races mid-season and snatching pole positions till the end.

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This year though is way different. Red Bull have won seven out of the seven races. And unless there is any unexpected dip in performance of the Austrian outfit, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are likely to win every race left this season.

Such is their advantage -- the Red Bull is clearly faster, especially on the straights – they lap most of the field in almost all the races.

“How it looks at the moment, I think we can (win every race this season). But that is very unlikely to happen; there are always things that can go wrong or a retirement or whatever but purely on pace at the moment it looks like (it's possible). But we will always get to tracks where it doesn’t work out, or bad luck in qualifying and you make your own mistakes," Verstappen had said last week.

Aston Martin have been the closest to Red Bull this season with Alonso standing aside the two Red Bull drivers on the podium most times. But Mercedes took a step forward in Spain by finishing second and third to be second in the constructors’ championship. In the process, they overtook the Aston Martins, including home hero Alonso, twice former champion with Renault.

Of course, Verstappen has unquestionably been the best driver on the grid the last couple of seasons, beating every driver there is. But the advantage of his car has played a significant role to it.

During the Monaco Grand Prix last month when Perez crashed his Red Bull in qualifying, his car was lifted by crane and shifted to a safer location on the track. Since the car was dangling at some height, TV cameras and photographers got the chance to click the chassis.

Teams are, for obvious reasons, very secretive about their design. The photographs and video footage of the floor design left engineers of rival teams dumbstruck at the advances made by Red Bull in design and aerodynamics.

“Personally, I spent some time but the 100 aerodynamicists at McLaren will be spending a little bit more time. It’s very interesting, indeed. And it also shows the complexity and quality of the development. To be honest, when I saw it, I said, “hats off to Red Bull”. I can understand why they have this kind of performance,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said.

Teams often try to replicate the design of teams doing well but at times copying everything is not that easy as the modifications must align with the aerodynamics of their own car.

“We all have a lot of pictures of the other cars. But then it’s quite difficult or even impossible to try to copy something because it’s more a global concept than something else. You can’t copy just one part of the car,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said.

Just when it seemed that there will be more competition at the front, especially after the epic title fight between Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton two years back and new regulations introduced last year, we are again moving into an era where one team dominates, just like Mercedes did in the last decade.

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