Early season summary

With four races completed, an early season summary is possible, along with a comparison to the same period in 2023, especially as the technical and sporting regulations have remained largely unchanged from last year to the current one, the driver pairings are the same, as are the Pirelli tyres.

There's certainly no change at the top of the leader boards with Max Verstappen and Red Bull out in front again, although so far this year, the picture does not seem quite so clear cut. The gap separating the three times world champion from his closest pursuer – Leclerc at the moment, Alonso last year – has come down from 33 to 18 points. The points difference between Red Bull and second placed Ferrari is only 21 points today, a drastic drop compared to the 93 that separated the Milton Keynes squad from Aston Martin in 2023. The world champions have lost 39 points, because even though they have finished first and second in three of the four races, Verstappen's retirement in Australia has cost them dear.

The Scuderia has almost doubled its four race points total from last year, from 62 to 120, moving up from fourth to second place, but more importantly, it has scored a one-two finish and placed at least one of its drivers on every podium. The progress is even more significant when one considers that, in 2023, the fourth race in Azerbaijan had an additional 35 points up for grabs as it was a Sprint weekend. 
McLaren has also moved up two places, from fifth to third, scoring almost five times as many points as last year (14 to 69). Of the top five, Aston Martin has suffered the most, going from second to fifth and from 87 to 33 points, while Mercedes drops from third to fourth (76 to 34 points).
While the top five teams remain the same, the gap to the five other competitors has grown. The percentage of points scored by teams placed six to ten has dropped from 5.4% to 3.7% and this year, only two teams have picked up the scraps: Racing Bulls (7) and Haas (4), whereas last year all teams had scored over the first four races.

Among the drivers, the big winners are the Ferrari pair Leclerc +31, Sainz +21, even though the latter missed a race, when Bearman nevertheless picked up 6 points as his stand-in. The McLaren duo are also up (Piastri +28 and Norris +27) while the two old boys are the big losers. Alonso is 36 points down and Hamilton has a 38 point deficit. 
However, it's early days as there are still eight months and 20 races to go to the end of the longest season in the history of Formula 1, so everything can change, even if a radical upset is unlikely.