The 13-year Formula 1 streak that could quietly come to an end

When I went on record last year and called the 2023 Formula 1 season one of the most competitively underrated seasons the sport had seen in decades, I wasn't kidding or saying it for the sake of sticking up for Max Verstappen.

It was truly one of the more underrated seasons Formula 1 had experienced, but that high-level competitiveness was simply masked by the fact that Verstappen was winning pretty much every race and the only three races he didn't win were all impacted by some kind of unforeseen circumstance during the weekend.

At one point, he broke the winning streak record and reeled off 10 consecutive victories.

But the battle for second place was as tight as it had ever been, with drivers from as many as five different teams staking their claim as the "best of the rest" at some point throughout the 22-race season.

While "Red Bull dominance" was what the media talking heads referenced whenever the Dutch national anthem played on the podium throughout the year, with some aiming to downplay Verstappen's own success, Verstappen would have won the constructor championship on his own, and he finished with more than twice as many points as teammate Sergio Perez.

The only thing a typical Formula 1 fan could have asked for is that that competitive battle be for P1 instead of P2.

Now in 2024, that epic season has indeed started to come to fruition for P1, not P2.

Though the 2023 success of Verstappen was not solely down to the immense strength of the RB19, it has been no secret that the 2024 iteration of the Red Bull car has not lived up to what many believed it would. Many had anticipated a similar season for the 26-year-old Dutchman, especially after he started with four wins in five races, with the lone exception being a mechanical DNF.

Yes, Verstappen is still the world championship leader – he's held that title since May 2022 – and by more than three race wins.

Yes, he has won seven of 14 races. And yes, despite Lewis Hamilton's two wins, Verstappen is still the only driver to win a race and stand atop the podium more than once (George Russell's disqualification handed Hamilton the win in Belgium).

Seven different drivers representing four different teams have won this year, and of those four different teams, Red Bull are ironically the only team to have not placed both of their drivers on the top step of the podium at some point.

The 2024 season has truly produced a driver battle more so than a car battle, and that has gotten us to where we are now, with 10 races remaining on a record-breaking 24-race calendar.

And it has set the season up to potentially see an ultra-rare feat that wasn't even seen during the ultra-competitive 2012 campaign, which is what the recent competitive nature of the 2024 season has drawn comparisons to.

Not since the 2010 season has an entire season been contested without a single driver winning three races in a row.

Yes, Verstappen was on a nine-race winning streak earlier in the year, but seven of those wins came to wrap up the 2023 season, giving him 19 wins in a 20-race stretch. But at no point in 2024 has any driver won more than two races in a row, and Verstappen is the only driver to have even done that.

The 2010 season marked the introduction of the modern scoring system (minus the fastest lap point, which was added in 2019), and the top four drivers in the world championship, representing three different teams, finished within 16 points of one another. All won between three and five races over the course of the 19-race calendar, but never more than two in a row.

Verstappen's lead over McLaren's Lando Norris is 78 points itself, and the top four are separated by 110 points, so things aren't quite as tight as they were 14 years ago.

Yet over the last one race, two races, three races, four races, and five races, Verstappen is not the top scorer. He is tied with Hamilton as top scorer over the most recent six events as well.

For a sport that many have considered "not competitive" and "predictable", Formula 1 seems to be serving up the exact opposite in 2024.

Whether or not the season does indeed become the first in 14 years that fails to see a single three-race winning streak remains to be seen, but there have certainly been enough weekly contenders to make building up such a streak an extreme challenge for any driver, regardless of the team for which they compete.

The Formula 1 summer break is scheduled to end this weekend, with the Dutch Grand Prix scheduled to take place at Circuit Zandvoort this Sunday, August 25. Verstappen has won his home race from pole in all three years since it was added back to the schedule in 2021. ESPN is set to provide live coverage beginning at 8:55 a.m. ET, so begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!