The second half of the Formula 1 season is upon us, with Max Verstappen the owner of a healthy (78-point) lead in the drivers standings and Red Bull maintaining a less healthy, albeit still pretty healthy, 42-point lead in the constructors standings. At the same point last year, Verstappen’s lead was a whopping 125 points, and Red Bull held an insurmountable 205-point edge. So, the gap is closing, and hopefully, the second half of the season will see that distance close even further. I think everyone, except for anyone in the Red Bull organization, wants to see that. And here are a few other things we’d like to see from now until the season finale at Abu Dhabi on December 8th.
*To start, I’d like to see McLaren continue to be the biggest threat to Red Bull’s dominance, and while Lando Norris won’t challenge Verstappen in the drivers standings, McLaren can surely give Red Bull some worries in the constructors. A 42-point lead could evaporate in the span of one race (a McLaren 1-2, coupled with a Red Bull dual disaster, and that lead disappears). Let’s face it: the odds are kind of stacked against Red Bull; it’s basically three (Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Sergio Perez) against one (Verstappen). Although it is impossible in the parameters of the F1 scoring system, it still seems like Perez could find a way to score negative points.
On the flip side, McLaren could become that team that clearly has the speed and performance but continually shoots itself in the foot with boneheaded strategy moves, even more boneheaded strategy moves, miscellaneous driver errors, pit lane mishaps, and numerous squandered potential wins. In other words, copying present-day Ferrari.
*I’d like to see George Russell win the Las Vegas Grand Prix on October 20th, then, while on the podium, reveal an undershirt beneath his driver’s suit that reads “I Had To ‘Weight’ 1.5 Kilograms And 116 Days Until My Next F1 Win.” Then, dropkick the F1 rule book, which, incidentally, probably weighs 1.5 kilograms, off the podium and into the crowd.
*It would be fun, in a rubbernecking-an-accident-on-the-freeway kind of way, to see Esteban Ocon endear himself to his 2025 team, Haas, while simultaneously giving the middle finger to his 2024 team, Alpine, by wiping out himself, his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, and both Haas cars, with a bold, yet amazingly stupid, attempt to take 17th place from 20th on the grid at the first corner of the United…
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