The decline has already been evident in the last few months, but after Baku the decline of the defending world champion can already be quantified: with Oscar Piastri's victory last Sunday, McLaren took the lead in this year's constructors' competition: they have 476 points against Red Bull's 456 points. Red Bull had to give up the lead for the first time in more than two years, which is a good indication of how hopeless it seemed for a long time from the perspective of the other teams.
In order to feel the significance and incredibleness of the turnaround, it is worth recalling that in May, at the time of Lando Norris's first victory, McLaren was still behind by 115 points. From a historical perspective, of course, McLaren is one of the most muscular teams in F1, they won eight constructors' titles, but the last time in 1998, that is, in the history of the Woking team - and the entire Formula 1 - is a rebirth that has been long overdue.
However, in the first half of the season, this was not really in the deck. Red Bull started this year with the same dominance as in previous seasons, and they collected 239 points in the first six races - barely half of McLaren's.
Red Bull's increasingly palpable frustration has many threads coming together. For example, Max Verstappen was able to win the last race in June (the Spanish Grand Prix at that time), and although he is losing ground in the individual race, he still has an advantage - he is 59 points behind Lando Norris - but fo...
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