Despite challenges, Red Bull remains robust, winning seven out of ten races, says Russell.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton believe it is a positive sign that Red Bull Racing is increasingly struggling to win races.
According to the Mercedes F1 driver duo, it is good for the sport that no team dominates.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are still leading the world championship, but they have found it much more difficult to consistently win races in 2024. Red Bull easily secured victories last year, but now the competition is much tighter.
“They have won seven of the first ten races. It doesn’t seem too difficult,” Russell commented when asked about Red Bull Racing’s challenging phase.
Hamilton added his thoughts.
“Am I surprised? I wouldn’t say that. It’s just the way the sport evolves, and I think we are approaching the end of this generation of cars. That’s often what happens. Performances converge. Finding gains is harder. They have led for all these years and also, they have less development time, so it’s natural that the rest of the people slowly catch up, but they are still performing wonders.”
Taking a more serious tone, Russell revisited his initial response, offering further clarification.
“It’s a good thing that there isn’t just one dominant force, because people want to see battles unfold on the track and drivers compete. If the regulations are well-designed, the team should be able to catch up, and there should be more than one car fighting for the win.”
“I think we could have a very nice battle between four or even five teams for the race win, and then we will have a major shakeup in 2026. As Lewis said, history shows that it’s towards the end of the regulations that you make your best races, so maybe we should keep the regulations in place indefinitely!”
Development handicaps proportional to points?
Russell believes a rule change on wind tunnel time could help teams be even closer.
“I think the wind tunnel time allocation system based on ranking is really good, but it’s based on positions rather than points. Red Bull has scored twice as many points as us, the second-ranked team. Yet, they receive the same difference in wind tunnel time reduction (5%) as between us and Ferrari last year. And there were only three points difference, so maybe if it was based on the number of points scored rather than the actual championship position, it would help teams catch up more quickly.”
Red Bull Still Strong with Seven Wins in Ten Races Red Bull Still Strong with Seven Wins in Ten Races
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