Can McLaren Overtake Red Bull as the Kings and Queens of the Constructors’ Championship?

And what a turnaround that would be: they and Mercedes have had a monopoly on the team trophy every year since 2010.

The unlikely beneficiary of Red Bull’s malaise could well be McLaren – they are now the bookmakers’ favourites to win their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998!

Those involved in betting UK were not exactly heading out in their droves to wager on McLaren to be F1’s best team in 2024 – Red Bull were as short as 1/6 favourites in the Constructors’ Championship odds.

McLaren, meanwhile, were available at 100/1 before the start of the season, with the sports betting tips columns seduced by the (probable) continued dominance of Max Verstappen at the head of the grid.

And the Dutchman obliged in the early weeks of the campaign, winning seven of the opening ten races.

But Verstappen has drawn a blank since the Austrian Grand Prix, while teammate Sergio Perez has experienced a dreadful second half of the season – he’s finished no higher than seventh on the grid since Week 6 in Miami.

That mediocrity has opened the door to others, with victories for Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Charles Leclerc revealing the greater variety and competitiveness out on the track in 2024.

But it’s McLaren that has been the most consistent thorn in Red Bull’s side. With two wins and ten other podium finishes from their drivers heading into the final three races of the season, the British firm find themselves just 42 points behind the Austrians.

And it’s their form heading into the business end of the campaign, aligned with Red Bull’s woes, that suggests they could yet catch the reigning champion construction team in one of the biggest shocks in modern F1 history.

When McLaren made a host of upgrades to their MCL38 ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, even they couldn’t have expected the immediate uptick in performance.

Victory in Florida was a milestone moment for the team, ending their long wait for a Grand Prix win but also in putting up the kinds of speeds that can match – or beat – those of Red Bull’s RB20.

As part of that package of updates, the aim was to achieve cleaner downforce and faster speeds. Mission accomplished then, with immediate reward enjoyed in Miami.

Whether McLaren’s upgrades came from original thinking – or by ‘borrowing’ ideas from Red Bull – remains to be seen. The Austrian firm’s advisor, Helmut Marko, believes that their new rivals are now running a ‘well executed copy’ of the RB20, although McLaren boss Andrea Stella has refuted that accusation.

Indeed, he threw shade back at Red Bull – claiming their car wasn’t fit to ride the bumps and kerbs at tracks like Monaco and Imola, where they struggled to remain competitive.

Either way, there’s just a handful of races left in the 2024 season – can McLaren’s renaissance continue, or will Red Bull put them back in their place?