Red Bull has dominated their Formula 1 competition in the first two races of the 2024 season.
F1 legend Damon Hill believes that Max Verstappen’s dominant performance early in the season might reduce Red Bull’s motivation to make further performance improvements.
Hill thinks that creating the necessary hunger for improvement will be challenging for Christian Horner and other leaders within the team as the season progresses.
Red Bull has secured back-to-back one-two finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to start the new season. Max Verstappen has been dominant, outperforming his competitors, including teammate Sergio Perez, much like he did in 2023. He appears poised to continue this trend in the upcoming races.
The reigning triple world champion secured a commanding victory in Sakhir earlier this month, finishing a staggering 22 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. In Jeddah last weekend, he crossed the line more than 13 seconds ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez.
While dominating competitors like Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren is certainly impressive, Damon Hill, the 1996 world title winner, believes that it also poses a “challenging” dilemma in terms of striving for mid-season improvements.
“It’s nice when you’ve got a one-two to start off your season and your Constructors’ Championship, so the team feels great,” he told F1 Nation. “The funny thing is, though, that it’s quite difficult to get that striving emotion.”
“When you come second or you get beaten, you don’t like it, so you want to change that situation. There’s a lot of motivation to change.”
Red Bull’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, was able to shift his attention to developing the RB20 for this year well before last season ended, thanks to the team’s comfortable wins in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
It remains to be seen whether Hill’s concerns will come into play later this year and if the top teams can narrow the gap on Red Bull. Ferrari has emerged as the second-best team in 2024 so far, with nearly double the points of McLaren and Mercedes.
All eyes will be on Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix next weekend as he aims to secure a third consecutive Red Bull one-two finish and maintain his dominance over his F1 rivals.
