The drivers from Down Under are at the pinnacle of world motorsports, the Greatest Show on Earth if you follow the mad money says Peter Coster:
No longer is Red Bull and Max Verstappen the dominant force in F1, with the triple world champion and the Red Bull team under increasing pressure from McLaren.
Lando Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix by nearly 23 seconds, with emerging Melbourne superstar Oscar Piastri fourth after leading the race.
Both the McLaren drivers are race winners, with Norris adding to his victory at Miami and Piastri having won the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Australian finished third at Spa and was promoted to second after George Russell was disqualified because his Mercedes was underweight.
Piastri might have won in Belgium had he not lost time when he overran the pit box and hit the front jack.
The McLaren drivers are the new generation in F1. They are close to the same age, Norris 24 and Piastri 23, while some drivers on the grid are now in their 30s.
What also distinguishes them is their brutal honesty. Norris and Piastri have become known for freely admitting their own mistakes.
You don’t have to ask them. They will tell you, not something ego-driven drivers are known for. Norris was in pole position for the Dutch race on Sunday, with Piastri third on the second row of the grid.
He pointed out that his qualy lap was good in the first half but he made mistakes in the second half.
Norris, too, has become almost confessional in his race review.
Both drivers tell it how it is. In a woke world, they tell their truth. It actually adds to their aura.
In the rolling sand dunes of the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, the McLaren twins said wheel spin in their cars off the line saw Max Verstappen in the Red Bull jump into the lead.
In years gone by the cars themselves dictated the starts.
Asked who was likely to lead off the line in the last race to be held in Adelaide, Nigel Mansell said that it was a race between computers, which oversaw transaction control.
Now, it is the driver who spins up the wheels and the driver who controls the brake input. As it turned out, the McLaren had such superiority at Zandvoort that Norris simply drove away from Verstappen and the field in the early laps, while Piastri, who was to lead the race while others pitted, became trapped in dirty air behind third place-getter Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, eventually finishing fourth.
The emergence of the McLaren stars and the continuing lack of form by Red bull’s second driver in Sergio Perez now threatens the team’s chances of winning the constructor championship, with its lead cut from 42 points to 30 after the Dutch race.
This has also thrown the driver market into disarray. Perez was about to be thrown to the wolves at the summer break.
The second seat was thought to be going to Daniel Ricciardo when the Mexican driver was given a second chance to climb back into the points.
Perez is apparently safe for the remaining 9 races of the season and Ricciardo faces his own demons in keeping his own seat at Visa Cash RB next year.
New Zealander Liam Lawson has been promised “a seat” next season, but it might not be with Red Bull. Lawson, who replaced Ricciardo at then Alpha Tauri after the Australian driver broke his hand in a crash at Zandvoort last year, may be farmed out from the Red Bull junior team.
Williams, which has signed Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to a four-year contract, could conceivably drop Logan Sargeant.
The American, who had a massive crash in practice at Zandvoort, escaped uninjured but the crash on the 19-degree banking at the Hungenholtz corner, left the William’s a smoking wreck.
Mechanics could not rebuild the car in time for qualifying and the team is faced with multi-million dollar rebuilds from this and previous accidents involving Sergeant.
This is money that needs to be spent on car development, especially with Sainz joining Williams after losing his Ferrari seat to Lewis Hamilton, who joins the Scuderia next year.
Such accidents have also been a problem at Red Bull with Perez.
Other tension have also boiled over at Red Bull with Verstsppen’s father, former F1 driver Jos Verstappen openly calling for team principal Christian Horner to be sacked after a scandal involving a female employee.
Horner has since been cleared of any inappropriate behaviour but such tensions take a toll.
The Red Bull boss was uncharacteristically tetchy when asked by Sky Sports F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham as to who might be put in the second seat at Red Bull.
“Who would you put there?” snapped Horner. Pinkham said, not unreasonably, that was not for her to decide.
Jos Verstappen and Horner are at least speaking again after the incident involving the female employee, but all is not roses at Red Bull.
While the silly season of driver changes continues, the 2025 season will presumably see more Australian drivers on the grid.
Whether Daniel Ricciardo will be one of them remains unsure, but alongside Piastri will be Queenslander Jack Doohan at Alpine, the son of five-times world 500cc motorcycle champion Mick Doohan.
There is also another antipodean in Liam Lawson who is likely to step up somewhere.
There are also Aussies behind the scenes in Piastri’s mentor and manager Mark Webber, a nine-times GP winner at Red Bull and Piastri’s parents, who have financed their son throughout a his career in which he won all the junior championships in successive years, a record.
The next race is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 1.
2024 Dutch Grand Prix Results
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 30:45.5 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +22.896s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +25.439s |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +27.337s |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +32.137s |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +39.542s |
| 7 | George Russell | Mercedes | +44.617s |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +49.599s |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +1 lap |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +1 lap |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | +1 lap |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | +1 lap |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +1 lap |
| 14 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | +1 lap |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +1 lap |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | +1 lap |
| 17 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +1 lap |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +1 lap |
| 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | +2 laps |
| 20 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | +2 laps |
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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