As Formula 1 fans, we’re predisposed to looking at things in order – race results, timesheets, fastest lap charts – and start arguments about our own subjective rankings of motorsport-themed esoterica. A top 10 ranking of the best driver of all time is sure to ignite torches and sharpen pitchforks, for instance, let alone the descent into a Hunger Games-esque battleground every time the subject of “best Minardi livery” comes up. I’d pick 1996, but then I’d have to go into hiding.<\/p>\n
But we need to reassess our relationship with rankings and immovable stats, because Red Bull is confounding them a little bit this year in its own attempt to sell an underdog story. After qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen<\/a> made the suggestion that Red Bull was now the fourth-fastest team in F1<\/a> – behind McLaren<\/a>, Mercedes<\/a>, and Ferrari<\/a>. That was not only a reductive way of looking at it, but it was also not really true; Ferrari had been a step behind the top three in the opening races, and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>‘s sprint win had not been followed up on in qualifying in any case. His Saturday-race heroics had, and have, been the exception to the rule.<\/p>\n In this article<\/p>\n Jake Boxall-Legge\n<\/p>\n Formula 1\n<\/p>\n Red Bull Racing\n<\/p>\n McLaren\n<\/p>\n Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Formula 1 fans, we’re predisposed to looking at things in order – race results, timesheets, fastest lap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,16025,1710,749,16024,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-40488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-jeddah-street-circuit","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-red-bull-racing","14":"tag-saudi-arabian-gp","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114380467430437202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}