Verstappen to regroup during F1 summer break with McLaren and Mercedes right on his tailpipe

BARCELONA, Spain -- What a difference a year can make in Formula 1.

Yes, Max Verstappen is still on pace for yet another world title – it will be No. 4 in a row for the Dutchman unless Red Bull self-implodes.

But no longer is it a foregone conclusion that Verstappen will dominate the competition and, let’s face it, bore many fans looking for him to at least be made to sweat.

F1 instead has been lit up this summer as Red Bull’s speed advantage has evaporated thanks to huge improvements from more than one rival.

The four cars fielded by Mercedes and McLaren have emerged as threats to Verstappen, while Ferrari’s Prancing Horses are also right there. That has produced thrillingly unpredictable races like Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix where Verstappen finished fourth.

A week before that, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris made it a one-two at Budapest, while Verstappen finished fifth. The seven winners in 13 races after the Hungarian GP had already made this season the most competitive since 2012.

“It’s great. It’s really fantastic, I think, for the sport to be having such close teams and drivers,” said Lewis Hamilton, who was declared the winner in Belgium after Mercedes teammate George Russell was disqualified for his car being underweight.

“The pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing,” the former seven-time world champion said.

Last year, Verstappen recorded an eighth straight victory by finishing first at the Belgian GP and entered the summer break with a 125-point lead over teammate Sergio Pérez. Verstappen would go on to make it an F1 record 10 wins in a row and 19 wins in 22 races for the season. He won 15 races in 2022.

Verstappen appeared to be off to another title march this year after winning four of the first five races. But since then, he has just three wins in the last nine grand prix and has gone four consecutive races without a victory for the first time since 2020, before he became the dominant force in F1.

This time, Verstappen enters the summer break with a 78-point advantage over McLaren’s Lando Norris with 10 races to go. The season restarts at the Dutch GP on Aug. 25.

“We are looking forward to the summer break and having a bit of time to relax, but at the same time we are committed to being better and faster and are trying to find solutions as we go into the rest of the season,” Verstappen said after the race at Spa.

“We had a great start to the season, our last few races have been a bit more difficult, but we have been pushing to find a solution how to do that," Verstappen said. "Next race is obviously my home race in Zandvoort. It will be a tough battle and it will be all about tire management, but it will be great to be in front of my home crowd again.”

Mercedes enters the break on a high with three wins in the last four races. Hamilton snapped a long dry spell dating to 2021 when he won the British GP in early July. George Russell followed that up with a victory in Austria. They thought they had a one-two at Belgium, before Russell was disqualified.

That let Hamilton, who is bound for Ferrari next season, take his record win haul to 105 grand prix.

“We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, you know, with how we started off,” Hamilton said. "So for us to now have closed up and be, it’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season for sure."

McLaren has been considered the top rival to Verstappen since Norris got his first F1 win in Miami in May. Since then the two papaya cars have been runner-up five times in addition to their double in Hungary.

More good things are expected from the British outfit in the fall as McLaren is challenging Red Bull for the constructors’ title, where the Austrian team only has a 408-366 point advantage. That is due to the poor performances by Pérez, which has sparked speculation that he may be replaced despite his recent contract extension.

Ferrari is also expected to remain in the mix. Carlos Sainz, who is looking for a new seat for 2025, and Charles Leclerc have won races this season, even if they have lost a step to the other three leading teams.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing