Formula 1 has become Red Bull’s roadshow.

All five won Grand Prix this season, four of them finished one-two and collected 224 points out of a possible 235.

“I think that race pace advantage is pretty big at the moment,” reigning champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull said after the victory. Miami Grand Prix despite starting ninth.

Red Bull was at least 20 seconds ahead of the next best team in four races — in the second, in Australia, the race ended behind a safety car that bunched up the field.

Dubbed the RB19, Red Bull’s car is an evolution of its title-winning RB18, which had problems with weight and understeer at the start of the season that have been fixed.

“It’s the best start we’ve ever had,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “We feel like we’ve made a good step from RB18 to RB19, the kind of step you would expect.

Verstappen, who is aiming for a third consecutive title, has a 14-point lead over team-mate Sergio Perez. He has two wins to Verstappen’s top three.

Verstappen is the overwhelming favorite for the championship and Perez is realistically his only competition. Last season Verstappen won 15 races, Perez two. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in third is already 44 points behind Verstappen.

Alonso said in Miami that “to be honest, our main focus is just to look back and try to keep Mercedes and Ferrari under control in the Constructors’ Cup.”

That leaves just two for the title and Horner is confident that there will be no disagreements between his riders.

“I think it’s primarily a luxury issue,” Horner said of the two drivers vying for the title. “I think every team principal in the pit lane would hope to have this problem.

“The key thing is to make sure that paranoia doesn’t creep in and that both drivers are treated equally. You try to ensure equality, to the point of who gets out of the garage first every weekend, you know, it rotates. It even takes turns reporting who speaks first.”

In the last race in Miami, the pair used different tire strategies, which led to a battle on track, which was won by Verstappen.

“We know we can race,” said Verstappen. “The most important thing, of course, is that we don’t touch.”

Perez said he has to put the team before himself.

“We’re just two riders, but there are so many people who work at home and work really hard, we have to show respect,” he said.

Red Bull’s advantage was helped by its expected rivals, Mercedes and Ferrari, faltering. “I think we were surprised that others maybe didn’t deliver compared to last year,” Horner said.

Mercedes, which won eight consecutive constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2021, dropped to third place in 2022. His W13 was derailed by chronic porpoising where the car bounced around and once that was fixed the Mercedes started to get better performance. This prompted the team to retain their design concept when developing their next car, the W14. However, already in the first race in Bahrain, Mercedes realized that the car did not perform well when pushed to the limit.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Bahrain was one of Mercedes’ “worst days of racing”, adding that the W14 “lacked pace front, right and centre” as it was almost one second per lap slower than Red Bull. In Miami, Wolff described the W14 as “poisonous” due to its inconsistency.

The team then brought back their former technical director, James Allison, to replace Mike Elliott, who became chief technical officer.

Mercedes is third in the championship, 128 points behind Red Bull, with one podium finish.

Ferrari has also had a season of sobriety.

Hired a new team leader, recruiting Frédéric Vasseur by Alfa Romeo Racing, but Ferrari’s SF-23 car, the design of which preceded Vasseur’s appointment, was lackluster and the team is fourth.

Ferrari suffered from high tire degradation, tire usage inconsistency and wind sensitivity. His reliability was also poor as engine problems forced his driver Charles Leclerc to retire in Bahrain, penalizing his starting position in Saudi Arabia under FIA rules. Leclerc, Verstappen’s distant 2022 runner-up, is seventh in points, 85 behind Verstappen.

“What we lack is consistency on the car,” said Leclerc. “It’s not even corner to corner, just in the same corner I can have a huge balance of oversteer and then a huge balance of understeer. Gaining confidence is very difficult for a driver.”

Ferrari and Mercedes have modernized their cars, but they are still not sure of the exact solution.

“We have to manage our own expectations,” Wolff said. “In 15 years in Formula 1, I’ve never seen a silver bullet introduced where you suddenly unlock half a second of performance.”

Even Red Bull is not standing still and continues to modify its car.

No team has won every Grand Prix in a season, but McLaren he almost did it in 1988, winning 15 of 16 races that season, a 94 percent winning percentage.

Red Bull is of course at 100 percent, but there are many races left before the end of the season in Abu Dhabi in November.

“Big profits can come quickly. We have a great car, a great team, two great drivers,” Horner said, pausing. “You know, we still have a long way to go.