In days of yore, the response to a single team dominating a Formula 1 season might have been met with an arbitrary rules change with the intention of closing the pack for the following year. Remember when Ferrari’s run of dominance in the early 2000s was ‘miraculously’ ended by 2005’s no-tyre-changes rule, and Bridgestone got its compounds wrong?
There have been no such kneejerk reactions to Red Bull’s total and utter devastation of the rest of the field in 2023. Unlike last year’s tweaks to the ground-effect formula, which detailed a small change to the floor height dimensions to limit the deleterious effects of porpoising, the 2024 rules are effectively the same as last year’s.
‘Convergence’ is the key buzzword here. The prevailing theory is that, with settled rules, Red Bull will start to reach a point of diminishing returns while the other teams continue upon their trajectory. It appears that most are set to follow the Milton Keynes team in its highly lucrative development direction, although we’ll only see to what extent later.
With relatively few changes from 2023 across other facets, it almost appears that 2024 will be ‘2023-plus’, giving the teams the opportunities to right the wrongs of last season. You can bet that they’ll take that opportunity as they hope to
