Formula 1® Mid-Season Review: The WDC Battle is ON!

 

We're now at the thrilling midway point of the Formula One® season, and here at Senate Grand Prix, I want to talk about the battle for the World Drivers' Championship. It's still wide open, and the drama is only just beginning.

The Unyielding Rivals: Red Bull vs. McLaren

Never, ever count out the once-in-a-generation talent that is Max Verstappen. Never count out the immense pedigree of the Red Bull Formula 1® team, and indeed, never count out Christian Horner, one of the most successful team principals in the history of Formula 1®. While Zak Brown secured his first Constructors' title with McLaren last year, he still hasn't clinched a World Drivers' Championship with any driver under his leadership. And this brings me to my central point.

McLaren, resplendent in its papaya orange, has undoubtedly proven itself to be one of the best cars on the grid. But is Red Bull truly catching up? And, perhaps more crucially, does Zak Brown possess the management capability to keep Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris under control?

McLaren's Internal Combustion: The Friendship Façade

In the first half of the season, Oscar and Lando have presented themselves as the best of friends, seemingly prepared to share race wins, offer pats on the back, and maintain a harmonious front. But as I've said before, I don't buy it. When you have WDC capability, desire, pedigree, and championship DNA coursing through your veins, there's no such thing as a teammate.

While Christian Horner famously declared last year that "race points belong to the team and not the driver," I'm not entirely sure that philosophy resonates with champions like Max Verstappen or legends like Senna, Prost, Niki Lauda, or Lewis Hamilton. When they're strapped into that cockpit, they want to win every single race and gain every single point.

The coming together of the two McLarens at the Canadian Grand Prix, for me, was not an isolated incident; it had been building for the past three or four races. 

You have two world-class drivers in Oscar and Lando, in a formidable, well-designed, well-engineered team and car that's performing at the top of its game. If they go neck-and-neck, eventually, they're going to have to start ignoring each other. 

They're going to have to lock in and find something within their personalities that isolates them from the carnival noise that is Formula 1®.

Oscar's main rival is Lando Norris, and vice versa. While Lando held his hands up and admitted his fault for coming up on the inside in Canada, Oscar was equally not being a team player by allowing dramatic amounts of space.

The Dogfight Begins: Red Bull's Opportunity?

So, the fight is on. It's begun. We have the second half of the season to come, and it's going to be a dogfight. While the Max Verstappen and George Russell argument played out politically on camera, I would never write off Max Verstappen's ability to capitalise. 

If the two McLarens continue to fight wheel-to-wheel at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and the most famous race circuit in the world, Silverstone (where anyone can win), this might open the door for Max Verstappen.

All Max has to do is watch those two McLarens go head-to-head, eat each other's tyres, possibly cancel each other out, and perhaps even come together a few more times as the intensity, the heat, and the ruthlessness that is Formula 1® start to build for that World Drivers' Championship. 

The back door could be wide open for Max Verstappen to slip through, scoop up the points, grab the wins, and bring the fight back to McLaren and back to Zak Brown.

That's what Red Bull has been famous for. That is what Max Verstappen is renowned for. And with the second half of the season now heading back to Europe, the fight is most definitely on.

And as always, when the lights go out and the drama unfolds, here at Senate Grand Prix, there is only one winner, and that's you, the race fans!