Twelve months ago, the world of Formula 1 still looked very different in many ways. Max Verstappen led the championship with a sizeable margin, trying to drag an inferior car across the line for his fourth world title. Oscar Piastri had only one Grand Prix victory to his name, while Helmut Marko had called the situation at Red Bull “alarming” for the first time a week prior to the Italian GP – following Lando Norris’s dominant win in Zandvoort.
The alarm bells truly began ringing at Monza, where Verstappen finished sixth after a weekend full of frustrations. “In 2023 we still had the most dominant car, but we have turned it into a monster,” Verstappen fumed at the time. He even added that winning the world championship wouldn't be realistic with the problematic Red Bull car.
