Those hoping for a surprise result at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix had their hopes dashed once again as Max Verstappen continued his dominant start to 2024’s Formula 1 championship. 

The irrepressible Dutchman was barely seen on screen throughout the 50-lap encounter in Jeddah, save from the start and his brief battle with Lando Norris after the first safety car of the year, as the action happened elsewhere.

Instead, much of the attention was focused elsewhere: a thrilling midfield scrap courted much of the TV time, as did the battle between Norris and Lewis Hamilton in the dying stages of the race. And, of course, F1’s viewers had the last-minute debut of Oliver Bearman to savour, as the 18-year-old Briton was thrown in the deep end at Ferrari when Carlos Sainz was laid up with appendicitis on Friday morning. 

Last year, George Russell had suggested very early on into the season that Red Bull was likely to win every race of 2023. At the time his candour came tinged with what felt like defeatism, but his prognostications had been 95% correct by the end of the year; the RB19 had been far and away the dominant car, and only Carlos Sainz broke the team’s stranglehold of the winners’ circle.  

This season? So far, the same – except it feels even more exclusive at this juncture. Only a technical issue or a Singapore-like capitulation is realistically going to peel Verstappen off the top of the race results, based on these first two races. The three-time champion’s margin of victory was not as crushing as it had been in Bahrain, with his 13.6s winning margin over Sergio Perez inflated by the Mexican’s unsafe pitstop release penalty.  

Verstappen only needed to use DRS assistance in one arena, when wresting his lead back from Norris as the Briton had assumed first place post-safety car. Norris, who hadn’t stopped while the race was neutralised, did not put up too much of a fight as his focus was on preserving his medium-compound tyres. Nor could he, as the Red Bull DRS cracked open and delivered a huge straightline speed boost into Turn 1, north of 30km/h against the DRS-less McLaren.  

Before indulging in too much doomsaying, it’s probably worth seeing where the RB20 stacks up in a lower-speed environment; Monaco and Singapore were among its predecessor’s weak spots, so any carryover will be something to look out for. But at this rate, not even Perez is going to get a look in at the top step. 

Facing the media in the FIA’s Friday team principals’ press conference, Christian Horner hoped, in the light of his clearance in an investigation over alleged inappropriate behaviour to a female employee at Red Bull, that a line could now be drawn under it. He cited the intrusion on his family, along with the dismissal of the grievance in Red Bull’s internal investigation, as sufficient reason to end the current thread of stories in publications worldwide. 

Except, it wasn’t quite the end of it. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was apparently set to be suspended, as the complainant had been earlier this week. Max Verstappen seemed to link his future at the team to Marko’s fate, suggesting that the current champion could feasibly consider a move to Mercedes should the Austrian be ousted from the team.