Steiner Believes One Team 'Could Challenge Red Bull' In Second Half Of 2024 Season

Monday, 18 March 2024 at 10:37

Updated at Monday, 18 March 2024 at 14:51

The former team principal of Haas, Guenther Steiner, discussed the state of the F1 Championship at the moment and proposed one team that could challenge Red Bull.

The 2024 season so far hasn't gone according to the hopes of most fans. It was half-expected that Red Bull would start this season ahead no matter what, but people probably hoped other teams would at least be closer to the Austrian team.

However, Red Bull seems to have maintained its advantage over rivals that they had at the end of the most recent season (2023).

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Moreover, with a cost cap in place, it was expected that the whole field would converge, but there is still a sizeable gap between the top and the bottom five teams. Guenther Steiner told 7.30:

"I honestly thought this year we [would] have been closer, but the opposite happened. You have got five teams … on the top and then five teams on the bottom. It's almost like two championships."

While it might seem closer in the qualifying session, the gap between the top and bottom five teams becomes more apparent during the race. Unless one of the drivers in the top five makes a mistake, the bottom five have no hope of scoring points.

The battle for the Grand Prix victory has also been less exciting during the first two races. Verstappen won both the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after starting from pole.

On the other hand, Steiner believes there is a team that might bring the challenge to Red Bull. Ferrari has been the second fastest so far, and the former team principal believes the Italian team could catch up in the second part of the season.

"I think Ferrari this year, if they've had good progress in development … they could challenge Red Bull hopefully [in the] second half of the season."