“The narrowest field in F1 history”

Alex Albon has insisted that F1 is not set for a boring season, insisting the sport has never been healthier in terms of close competition.

With Red Bull's second straight 1-2 finish following their complete domination of the 2023 season, has F1 reached the point where it's boring fans and even participants? Williams' Alex Albon scoffed at the idea…

Alex Albon: “If you take Max Verstappen out of consideration, this is the best grid in F1 history”

Albon spoke about the theme of dominance on his podcast 'Beyond the Grid' earlier this week, talking about the closeness of the field and the pressure on all drivers to ensure they don't make the slightest mistake (even a 10th). I was talking about that. Even just one second could cost drivers on the 2024 grid several positions.

“It's a bit disappointing to see the comments about Max and the comments that the season is boring, because at least from my point of view it's not like that at all,” Albon insisted.

“If you take him out of the equation, you have one of the best grids in F1 history, one of the best fields, one of the narrowest grids.

“Even if you include Max, it's still the toughest field in F1.”

Albon is right on many points. There's no debating how close the fields actually are. After all, in a world that continues to converge with stable regulations and budget caps, there is no such thing as a “bad” car in F1 anymore. The slowest cars are simply the ones with poor performance.

Therefore, the difference between the fastest and slowest flying laps in Saudi qualifying (between Q1 and Q3) was only 2 seconds, and in Q3 the difference between the fastest and slowest times was only 1.1 seconds, with an average difference between each competitor of 0.11 It was seconds.

In contrast, if you compare the spread of that field to the 2016 Bahrain GP (the second race of the third season after the last major rule change with the introduction of hybrid power units), the difference between the fastest and slowest in Q3 was 2.2 seconds. , the difference between Q3's fastest time and Q1's slowest time was 4.9 seconds, which is more than double today's difference.

Gone are the days when the 107 percent rule, meant to keep dangerously slow cars off the grid, was actually what the slowest teams had to worry about.

In fact, Sargent was 4.5 seconds faster than the 107 percent cut-off time in Saudi Arabia, so even the slowest car was within 102.35 percent of the fastest time.

Depending on how old you are, and which era you believe to be the 'golden age' of F1, the field has never been wider…or even wider. Throughout most of F1's history, on a single lap, the difference between first place and his second-fastest car could be several seconds, which is greater than the difference in the entire field today.

But does Albon's argument about the closest field really matter? After all, today's cars are so easy to drive in a consistent manner that they're a huge differentiator. “Mistakes” are much harder to make than they were in the past.

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Red Bull only have one point after the first two races

20 highly skilled drivers (regardless of how you look at less talented drivers, all of them are highly skilled), all of whom are consistently extracting the potential of their cars. The differentiating factors are as follows. The stats so far this season are comparable, partly due to the machine.

Red Bull remain on the table with only one point out of the 88 points available at the moment, as Charles Leclerc snatched the fastest lap point on the final lap in Saudi Arabia, while the top five teams only have one of the 20 points. He has scored 19 points. Nico Hulkenberg's Haas is the only interloper there.

Without innovative vehicle designs that teams cannot take risks due to lack of testing time, the performance gains that can be unlocked during a season will be very small. Budget caps and aerodynamic testing limitations ensure that. That's why McLaren's huge profits in 2023 are so impressive, and even if no such restrictions had been put in place, the improvements would have been incredibly impressive.

So, in a sense, Albon is right. The field is extremely competitive, and in terms of talent, we probably have the strongest group of all-around drivers in history.

This will probably be a lot of fun for drivers who are fighting in the midfield to score every point. But unless you're one of those drivers, and you're just an average fan who attends races on the weekends, watching Red Bull sprint at the front probably won't be all that interesting.

Yes, this sport is a meritocracy and Red Bull has achieved its current dominance. No, I don't think the rules should be changed as an expedient reaction to that. But let's not pretend that watching Max Verstappen win all but one of the past 20 Grands Prix is ​​extremely entertaining for anyone other than Max or his team.