F1 News: Former Driver Predicts Closer Racing In 2024 - "Law Of Diminishing Returns"
Former F1 driver Martin Brundle has explained a theory which suggests that the grid will come closer in 2024. Noting that the sport's history has frequently demonstrated the tendency for other teams to catch up, there is a possibility of more exciting racing to observe in the upcoming season.
Red Bull displayed so much dominance in 2023 that races began to get predictable. Fans wanted to witness close racing, but that only happened behind Max Verstappen's RB19, which secured 19 Grand Prix wins out of the 22. Two other Grand Prix were taken away by Sergio Perez's RB19, leaving only one race in Singapore for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz to secure.
Fortunately, as the 2023 season went by, Red Bull rivals made all the efforts to get closer and closer. Brundle explained that there's a limit to which Red Bull can upgrade its car. Beyond that, it enters the phase of diminishing returns, especially when the regulations stabilize. That's when the pack closes in, and racing gets better.
When a fan asked how much more can Red Bull get out of their car in the current regulations, and if it can now be expected that other cars will now close that gap, on a live Q&A session with Brundle, the former driver answered:
“Law of diminishing returns, if your car’s working really well, you’ve got less potential upside, of course.
“But you just look at it, they turned up in Singapore and even in Abu Dhabi at the last race, it’s not a plug and play perfect racing car. So I’m sure there’s some upside and they’ve had six clear months thinking about it.
“But history tells you in Formula 1 that consistent regulations close the pack, and the pack is already quite close, as we saw with Williams or a Haas popping into the top ten in qualifying quite frequently. So that they can improve that car, but the others should copy, catch up, innovate – yes.”
When a user asked if he expects McLaren to win races next season, he answered:
"They have got a great driver line up and the team seem to be in the ascendancy. I'm not sure the wind tunnel will really be on stream yet for making a big change but they seem to understand their car, every time they brought an update it really moved it forward, which suggests that all their data is matching up with track performance.
"I just I think for the sake of all of us, and for F1 and even for Red Bull, to be honest, we need not just McLaren, but Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes and everybody to close the gap.
"So fingers and toes crossed the McLaren and all the other teams can do that."
