Max Verstappen won the Japanese Grand Prix at a canter, making it three victories in four races to start the 2024 F1 season, with Red Bull once again commanding the championship.
Martin Brundle said Red Bull’s dominance in the Japanese Grand Prix “broke my heart” and acknowledged that Max Verstappen is likely to have the 2024 title wrapped up.
The Dutchman won the race with little effort, making it three wins out of four to begin the new season. And teammate Sergio Perez finished second, giving Red Bull its third one-two finish of the year.
Neither had been on the podium two weeks earlier in Melbourne, as flames on Verstappen’s brakes forced him to retire and Perez could only manage fifth. Ferrari were first and second in their absence, raising hopes that they might be able to take the fight to Red Bull.
But it was business as usual in Japan. Brundle, reviewing the Suzuka weekend on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, expressed his disappointment that there was not more of a battle for the win.
He stated, “What I’ve learned is that despite my great hopes, wishes, and expectations that the pack had closed the gap a little bit to Red Bull after Australia, when we went to one of the all-time great handling circuits at Suzuka, Red Bull were first and second at a canter.”
“It wounded my heart a little, because I expected it to be closer to the front. But the course was always going to suit Red Bull.” Red Bull leads Ferrari by 21 points, which appears to be a small lead for the time being but will undoubtedly grow unless the leaders experience further reliability issues.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff has essentially written off any possibility of stopping the defending champions after their performance at Suzuka. “No-one is going to catch Max this year,” the Austrian stated.
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And Brundle agrees that it is very unlikely that this season ends without Verstappen being crowned a four-time F1 champion. He added: “Toto wears his heart on his sleeve, especially when we catch him just after yet another disappointment in the Mercedes team at the moment. He tends to blurt it out as to what he thinks about his own team and other teams.
“I think it’s stating the obvious – the car is strong, Max is at the peak of his game, his team-mate Sergio Perez is more comfortable in the 2024 car, but he’s not exactly wearing Max’s mirrors out at the same time.
“Unless McLaren, Ferrari – maybe Aston Martin, kind of Mercedes – come up with some genius upgrade that closes the gap, you’d have to say that it does look as if they’ve got both championships under control. But we’ve got 20 races to go yet and, as we saw in Australia, you never know what’s going to happen.”
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