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After the Australian GP, Red Bull had 55 points in the bag while Ferrari had 104 points. Charles Leclerc had a commanding lead of 46 points in the standings over Max Verstappen as the latter ended the Australian GP staring at his Red Bull burning in flames.
Four rounds later, Red Bull has 235 points in the bag while Ferrari is 36 points behind with 199 points on the board. Max Verstappen leads the drivers' standings with 125 points on the board, while Charles Leclerc is 9 points behind with 119 points.
The balance of the championship has changed completely in the last four races. After the Monaco GP, where Ferrari put forward a desperate protest against the Red Bull drivers, it's starting to become apparent that the Austrian team is slowly but steadily turning up the intensity in the championship and Ferrari is unable to keep up. In this piece, we look at how Milton Keynes has turned the tide on Maranello.
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Four consecutive wins!
The situation was dire after the Australian GP, with Max Verstappen conceding that he was not even thinking about the title challenge. He'd suffered two DNFs in 3 races and if the team did not resolve its reliability issues, a title challenge was out of the question. Ever since, slowly but steadily, Red Bull has put its act together and made incremental gains.
The upgrade in Imola helped the team close the gap on Ferrari in terms of race pace and that is one aspect where Red Bull has been able to maintain a lead over the Italian squad since then. The team found out what issues plagued the power unit and Verstappen has not suffered a failure ever since.
To add to this, the team, including both Verstappen and Sergio Perez, have maintained a level of consistency unlike Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who have messed up at times. While Sainz has had multiple race-ending trips to the gravel, even Leclerc lost valuable points with his spin in Imola.
Even in Monaco, Ferrari was unable to capitalize on its qualifying prowess as Perez took over and won the race. In a race where Verstappen was not in contention, it was the second driver who took over the mantle and delivered. It is this teamwork that has helped Red Bull put together a four-race win streak.
Last two wins were at tracks where Ferrari was faster
Arguably the biggest positive for Red Bull is what happened in Barcelona and Monaco. At one point in Barcelona, it did appear that Charles Leclerc was going to cruise to a win and increase the points gap he had over Max Verstappen. While Verstappen was struggling to pass George Russell and destroying his own tires in the process, Leclerc was pulling away in the free air.
Disaster struck for Ferrari at that very moment, however, as the power unit cried enough and Leclerc had to retire. It was at this point that sanity prevailed in the Austrian squad as it did not let its two drivers fight it out in the race and rather made way for Verstappen to pick up another win and take over the championship lead at the top.
Similarly, in Monaco, Ferrari occupied the front row and was cruising with both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the front. It all fell to the wayside as Sergio Perez took advantage of the pit strategy to jump to the front while Leclerc was left fuming after the race. It does not often happen that you lose the race after starting from the front row, yet Ferrari did that.
Red Bull is making the most of its championship experience and operational superiority
While the Scuderia bore the brunt of most of the criticism that was levied on it, at some point, it has to be understood that every strategy was very marginal. Ferrari did not have an epic disaster in terms of its strategy, it was just pipped by the better team that opted to go for a more aggressive and marginally better strategy.
When you're trying to win the championship, you have to be mindful of these small margins. Winning these small battles in every race ultimately contributes to winning the title. Red Bull has been doing this since last season when almost every race was intense and very close. While it won a few and lost a few as well, it has the experience of a championship fight and it knows how to approach these situations. So, when every time there is a marginal call, the Milton Keynes-based squad and its razor-sharp strategy unit are spot on!
It was spot on when it opted to pit Sergio Perez in the Miami GP late in the race during the safety car period, it was spot on when it pitted both its drivers for Intermediates in the Monaco GP, and it has been spot on whenever there is a tense moment in the race.
Ferrari is unable to keep up!
Last year, the Austrian squad showed how it approaches the season. It may or may not start a season on a strong note but it keeps making small but incremental progress in all departments in every race. Be it the car, the driver, or even the strategic unit, development is a constant.
It is this incremental growth that is very hard to keep up for its rivals and that's where they lose out! While Mercedes was more or less able to match Red Bull last season in certain areas (well, because it was on a seven-year championship run!), Ferrari has started to panic. The team radio during the Monaco GP was frantic and stressful and if it wasn't for Carlos Sainz overhauling the team's decision to pit on inters, he would have finished behind the Red Bulls as well.
Seven races into the season, Ferrari's recent inexperience in fighting for the championship is starting to get exposed. The reason? It's not because the Austrian squad has a faster car than the Italian squad, it is because the team ticks all the boxes while Ferrari does not. After the first seven races this season, Red Bull firmly stands as the championship favorite as Ferrari starts to feel the weight of the championship battle.
