Norris’ 20-second win over Verstappen presents new barrier for the Dutchman’s title charge.
At the Dutch Grand Prix, Lando Norris defeated Max Verstappen by a commanding 22 seconds, achieving a winning margin that exceeded any of Verstappen’s dominant victories at the start of the season. This significant gap highlights a shift in the competitive landscape, as Norris’s performance outstripped the impressive leads Verstappen had established earlier in the year.
Max Verstappen has been dominating Formula One since 2021. He has been unstoppable ever since. The three-time world champion has been flying to back-to-back victories with the Red Bull rocket ship. He started the 2024 season in hopes of clinching his 4th title. He won the first seven races without any threat. But as the season progressed, the great Verstappen started to feel the heat and he was under pressure.
The home race conundrum
Lando Norris becomes the recent driver to break Verstappen’s home race-winning streak. Norris’s 22-second margin is the biggest winning margin in the 2024 season. Norris has ruled the Zandvoort circuit like no other since it reopened in 2021.
Red Bull as a team is still highly competitive, but Mercedes and McLaren in particular have improved significantly, and the duel at the front now usually consists of six or eight cars, depending on whether Ferrari manages to get back into the race.
Although he can’t do it every weekend, Max Verstappen still knows how to win and gets outcomes from a car that others can only imagine. Max has ruled the Zandvoort circuit like no other since it was re-added in 2021. He won three races in a row; if he hadn’t lost his place in lap 18, 2024 might have been his fourth. Verstappen gave Lando Norris the lead, leaving him with little choice but to settle with P2. The fact that the three-time champion held a 20-second lead still seems surreal.
Not Max Verstappen, but the Red Bull RB20 is mostly to blame for the problem. Peter Windsor, the former Ferrari boss, is adamant that the Dutchman performed admirably in Zandvoort against all the difficulties. Perhaps Lando’s victory was more of a legacy passed down from the reigning champion because he was aware that he would not be able to catch up.
But why is Verstappen and RedBull lacking?
This season is the most competitive since 2012, with seven different race winners through 14 events. Nevertheless, in 2012, four distinct teams were unable to win more than one race. After Red Bull’s domination in the previous two seasons, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari contested in 2024 and defeated the reigning champions in many races.
Max Verstappen won seven races in 2024, making Red Bull the most successful team so far. But for the first time since 1990, three more teams have each won two races in Formula One. Williams and Benetton each took home two victories in that year, while McLaren and Ferrari both finished in P1 six times.
A team that was unstoppable and untouchable is suddenly under pressure from the teams behind and drivers from other top teams are starting to catch up. What happened at RedBull is that Verstappen hasn’t won a race in two months.
Red Bull’s lack of performance and Verstappen’s winless streak seem to have started after Adrian Newey announced his departure from the Championship winning team by the end of the 2024 season.
Is it the Newey effect?
Adrian Newey has been a monumental part of Red Bull’s and Verstappen’s success over the years. The “man who can see air” has designed some of the best race cars that have ever raced in F1. Many went on to win multiple championships.
Finishing P2 in a race is a result a lot of teams only dream of getting. The kind of results Red Bull has been enjoying, even after the Newey news surfaced, would make most teams happy. Newey has continued to be a part of the Red Bull team and attends the Grand Prix weekends. Understanding how to get the most performance out of a car under any set of regulations and how to balance the different design trade-offs involved is one of Newey’s numerous skills.
So, what’s next for Max and RedBull?
The Red Bull ace managed to overtake the McLaren in Turn 1, but he was unable to maintain that lead. It wasn’t something he wanted to do at his home race.
After the humiliation at Zandvoort, there are a lot of lessons and homework to complete. The Austrian racing team’s main goal is to get their car fixed so Max can win more races this season. Although the current situation doesn’t seem promising, Red Bull is capable of anything at any time.
The Dutch GP is a done and dusted deal. Now the three-time champion is focusing on the Italian Grand Prix and he will look forward to defending his crown amidst the Italian crowd.
