Whisper it if you want, but we’ve got a season. , in the wake of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at historic Imola. While the majority of the race went true to form, as Max Verstappen clung to a lead off the start and slowly pulled away from the field, the tide began to turn over the closing laps.
Slowly but surely, Lando Norris began to inch closer and closer to the Red Bull at the front. A gap of over five seconds was slowly whittled down to around two seconds, and with Verstappen powering his RB20 under threat of a fourth violation of track limits — and a subsequent five-second penalty — it was truly game on. In the end, Verstappen held on, clinging to a narrow victory over the hard-charging Norris.
But while Verstappen may have won the battle, the war may truly be on this year. As the grid heads to Monaco for the crown jewel of the F1 season, the field looks tighter than ever. Red Bull and Verstappen remain the favorites, but this is not 2023.
McLaren and Ferrari in particular look to have closed the gap up front, and the margins are razor thin in a way we have not seen in recent seasons. And those razor-thin margins may have arrived just in time for the sport itself. The thrilling title fight between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021, which came down to the final laps of the season, seems a distant memory.
Red Bull and Verstappen have been dominant since then, turning almost every race weekend into their private playgrounds. While future seasons look to provide t.
