How Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes have reeled in Red Bull

Seven different winners from the first 14 races has turned the 2024 Formula One season into compulsive viewing. Back at the first round in Bahrain, such excitement seemed unlikely as Red Bull dominated and its rivals were left tens of seconds in arrears.

F1’s fierce development war has changed all that and created genuine unpredictability at each race. Below, we track the upgrades of each of the top four teams during the first part of the year to tell the story of how the 2024 campaign came alive.

Red Bull

Wins: 7
Points: 408

The year started in familiar fashion, with Red Bull and Max Verstappen easing to two consecutive victories at the first two races. At the season opener, Verstappen had a margin of 22 seconds over teammate Sergio Pérez and a week later it was still a comfortable 13 seconds in Saudi Arabia.

Turmoil off track detracted from Verstappen’s dominance on it, but the first sign of sporting vulnerability came with a retirement due to a brake fire at the Australian Grand Prix. A 12-second winning margin over Pérez in Japan, where the Red Bull received its first major upgrade of the season, and a 13-second margin over Lando Norris in China suggested there was nothing to worry about, but things changed when McLaren brought a major upgrade to Miami.

Although an unfortunately timed safety car handed Norris the lead ahead of Verstappen, it was the pace the McLaren exhibited from that point onward that turned heads at Red Bull. The world-champion outfit hit back with their own major upgrade in Imola, but the race in northern Italy was also the first time the limitations of the Red Bull were laid bare since the introduction of the ground effect regulations in 2022.

Struggling over the kerbs, Verstappen saw a seemingly comfortable lead slashed to a few fractions of a second at the finish in a surprisingly close fight with Norris. The weaknesses of the Red Bull and its inability to ride kerbs and bumps was fully exposed in Monaco, where Verstappen could only manage sixth place behind cars from all three of Red Bull’s main rivals.

The weaknesses were still prevalent in Canada, but Verstappen drove around them to take a remarkable win in mixed conditions before a further upgrade in Spain helped in his narrow victory over Norris. By this point, though, it was clear Red Bull wasn’t finding the same joy from its…