The aftermath of F1's biggest periods of dominance

The swing from Christmas lethargy into a sudden burst of energy often coincides with the change of the date's final digit. Thankfully, in a couple of weeks, the instantaneous desire to better one's self will have faded and the gyms will be less clogged up; the people who perch on the machines purely to doomscroll will pack it in - but they'll be back next January. Happy new year, folks.

Cynicism aside, the convenient segmentation of time into years offers the chance for change. Just look at Formula 1's history; empires and dominant streaks have fallen over the winter, diverting the course of the championship's storylines for the ensuring seasons after.

In many of those situations, this has coincided with a rules change that has caught the dominant team off-guard; for others, convergence over design directions had brought the field closer together. Not all dominant streaks came to an abrupt end, and in other examples the following season might have been more contested, but with the same winner as before.

F1 sits in one of those boom periods for a single driver, after Max Verstappen won all but three of the 22 races held over the 2023 season - and, with no changes to the regulations for 2024, it's up to the other teams to catch up.

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As optimism over 2024's spectacle ranges from the pessimistic to the cautiously optimistic that the year will be less of a one-way street, it's probably wise to look at the aftermath of F1's most dominated periods. After all, history often repeats itself; perhaps it could offer the faintest glimpse at what this coming season has to offer.

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Ascari and Ferrari continued to dominate into 1953, but trouble was on the horizon

1953 - Ferrari dominance ended by Mercedes and Maserati

It was Alberto Ascari's record from 1952 that Max Verstappen beat in 2023; the Dutchman now holds the highest percentage of victories in a season after beating Ascari's 71-year-old record. The Italian's dominance of the '52 season, after winning six of the eight world championship grands prix, came as the World Championship of Drivers was run to Formula Two regulations - and Ferrari's 500 was evidently the best car on the grid. The Scuderia won all seven "proper" grands prix that year, Piero Taruffi having clinched victory in the season opener as Ascari was busy contesting the Indianapolis 500, prior to Ascari's victories in the remaining races.

More Ascari/Ferrari dominance followed in 1953. The Milanese had come under greater scrutiny from his Ferrari team-mates over the year, as both Giuseppe Farina and Mike Hawthorn won races, but cruised to a second successive title. But there was a warning shot from Juan Manuel Fangio and Maserati, who won the Monza finale, as 1954 ticked over into a renewed era for the Formula 1 rules.

The introduction of a new 2.5-litre formula for F1 machinery meant that the two-year period of the championship running under F2 rules was effectively over. Maserati's new 250F was an excellent car, and Mercedes arrived part-way through the season with its gorgeous W196. Fangio won in both cars, clinching victories at Buenos Aires and Spa-Francorchamps with the 250F before transferring to Mercedes to win four further races. Ferrari won twice that year, but Ascari's defection to Lancia left the Scuderia to focus on both Jose Froilan Gonzalez and Hawthorn - who won one race apiece.

As for the Lancia, its D50 was not ready until the final race of the year, restricting Ascari to nothing more than bit-part outings over 1954. He managed just one and 1/7th of a point that year, from scoring the fastest lap at the Pedralbes circuit in Barcelona, and sharing the fastest lap (then measured to just minutes and seconds) with six other drivers at Silverstone.

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McLaren came so close to the perfect season in 1988, a year which began an era of dominance but that wasn't without its troubles

1988 - McLaren's near-sweep ends turbo era; internal strife and Ferrari resurgence follows

Before Red Bull's RB19 swept all before it over 2023, the McLaren MP4/4 was the car that defined dominance in F1; a full house of 16 wins in 1988 was infamously denied by Williams stand-in Jean-Louis Schlesser, after his Monza collision with Ayrton Senna...

Like 2023, Ferrari chalked up the only non-McLaren win in 1988 after the Schlesser/Senna contact, as Gerhard Berger held off Michele Alboreto in that Italian Grand Prix to send the home crowd into raptures. Regardless, the McLaren-Honda pairing had been virtually unstoppable in its first year, concluding F1's first turbo era before the switch to a naturally aspirated formula.

The MP4/5 produced for 1989, now powered by a Honda V10, was the instant pacesetter - but Ferrari provided a renewed threat at the front with the John Barnard-penned 640. Thus, McLaren's efforts to match its '88 domination was not as clear cut, although Senna and Prost remained the key title protagonists. Their intra-team rivalry soured into a toxic relationship that took years to repair.

Meanwhile, Ferrari had strengthened over the winter. Nigel Mansell had replaced Alboreto in the line-up, and the team's new V12 engine was powerful but lacked the final top-end against the likes of the Honda powerplants. The Italian squad had also innovated with its sequential-shift semi-auto gearbox, but this was initially quite unreliable. Regardless, it took three wins that year as McLaren took nine. Williams returned to the winners' circle twice thanks to its new partnership with Renault and the efforts of Thierry Boutsen, as Benetton's Alessandro Nannini claimed the win when Senna was disqualified from the Japanese Grand Prix, after the Prost clash at the Casio Triangle.

Although McLaren still won titles after the peak of its dominance, the brief rise of Ferrari and the more prolonged ascent from Williams meant that Ron Dennis' operation could not enjoy a year quite like 1988 again. When Honda departed at the end of 1992, the team spent a few years in the doldrums - at least, until it successfully courted Adrian Newey's services in 1997.

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The F2002 would be a car Ferrari's rivals would try to emulate in 2003

2002 - Ferrari F2002 widely copied, but 2003 car challenged by year-old McLaren

Clear stylistic similarities between Ferrari's F2002 and much of the 2003 field emerged during launch season. Drooping noses, along with a slight kink in the engine cover's top edge, were just some of the more obvious examples where the F2002 had inspired the following season's field. And, why not? Ferrari had managed 221 points over 2002, the same tally as every other team combined in that season, so it made logical sense to develop a similar package as the regulations remained reasonably static.

Ferrari had moved the game on with its own F2003-GA when the car was introduced at the fifth round of the championship in Spain, with the sculpted sidepods that most teams would employ in the succeeding years, although the original F2002 had remained competitive against its imitators in Michael Schumacher's Imola win - the car's final race.

Although an improved car, the F2003 did not hold quite the same advantage as the other frontrunners; Williams' BMW-powered FW25 scored four wins courtesy of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, but its potential was probably squandered during the opening half of the season. By comparison, McLaren persisted with its MP4-17 chassis as the highly experimental MP4-18 did not progress beyond multiple problematic tests. While the MP4-17D largely had less outright pace compared to the Ferrari, the modifications that McLaren had made over the off-season imbued it with great reliability and consistency.

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This allowed Kimi Raikkonen to challenge Michael Schumacher for the title, taking it to the Japan finale, but could not deliver the win he needed to interrupt the German's streak of championship wins. Ferrari, using the lessons from 2003 and assisted by greater alignment with tyre supplier Bridgestone, built the all-conquering F2004 for the following year...

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A series of rule changes for 2005 meant Ferrari's dominance wasn't repeated as its era on top ended

2004 - F2004 dominance leads to new tyre rule; Alonso wins '05 title

Schumacher won 12 of the opening 13 races in 2004, his run only interrupted by a safety car clash at Monaco with Montoya as Jarno Trulli marched to his sole F1 win. McLaren and Williams' experimental car concepts did not bear fruit and led to a slip down the competitive order, as BAR and Renault took their places behind Ferrari.

Despite the impressive performances of BAR's Jenson Button and Renault's Fernando Alonso, neither had the armoury to displace Schumacher from the top step, and could rarely prise Rubens Barrichello out of the runner-up spot. Although McLaren and Williams improved as summer faded, Raikkonen and Montoya both ending the year with a win each, nobody was ever in the same postcode as Ferrari.

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For 2005, significant technical changes were enforced; engines had to last two race weekends, front wings were raised in an effort to improve the racing, and no tyre changes were allowed to take place in the race.

Michelin was able to take advantage and produced a more durable tyre compound, while Bridgestone missed the mark. As Ferrari was the sole top team supplied by the Japanese manufacturer, this ended the Italian outfit's hegemony over the championship; its sole win of 2005 was secured at Indianapolis after the withdrawal of every Michelin-shod team. Bridgestone had been able to supply a tyre that could cope with the banked final corner, while Michelin suffered two left-rear tyre failures through Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and reserve Ricardo Zonta.

This led to a brilliant title fight between Alonso and Raikkonen, which the Spaniard won at the Brazilian Grand Prix with two races to go, while Ferrari finished a distant third in the constructors' championship behind Renault and McLaren. The return of tyre changes in 2006 allowed Ferrari to reach a higher level of competitiveness once again, as Michelin left the championship at the end of that season.

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Vettel's second half of 2013 wins run didn't translate into success when the turbo-hybrid engine era arrived

2013 - Turbo hybrid era swings form from Red Bull to Mercedes in '14

The 2013 season's early phases promised to be as open as 2012, which featured seven different winners in the opening seven races, and boiled down to a titanic title fight between Sebastian Vettel and Alonso. The new season opened with a Raikkonen win, as Vettel, Alonso, and Nico Rosberg all won races during the first six rounds of the 2013 season.

But, after a mid-season switch in tyre compounds following a spate of high-profile Pirelli failures during the British Grand Prix, the season swung dramatically into Red Bull's favour. Of the 11 remaining races, Vettel won 10 of them; Lewis Hamilton chalked up his first Mercedes win in Hungary to interrupt the streak slightly.

That second-half dominance by Vettel helped the German sew up his fourth title on the bounce, but the tide was set to turn with the advent of the turbo-hybrid powertrain regulations. The naturally aspirated V8s were put out to pasture, and the incoming 1.6-litre turbo V6s became a significant performance differentiator. Mercedes produced the best rendition of the new rules, and the Brackley team ultimately won all but three races across 2014 as Rosberg and Hamilton enjoyed a titanic title tussle.

Red Bull, lumbered with Renault's unreliable powertrain design, showed a glimmer of promise through Daniel Ricciardo's first-time-out podium at Melbourne - but the Australian was disqualified from his first Red Bull race after exceeding the new fuel flow regulations. Vettel was comprehensively outclassed by Ricciardo, amid conjecture that the German was aiming to fall short of a performance clause in his contract to trigger a move to Ferrari, and did not manage a single win in 2014. Ricciardo claimed three, but Red Bull's chain of title wins stretching back to 2010 was over.

Mercedes, meanwhile, capitalised on its successful start to the turbo-hybrid era to win every title up to and including those in the 2020 season.

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COVID-19 meant it was a season like no other in 2020, but rule tweaks and race direction calls meant Mercedes and Hamilton couldn't repeat the double in 2021

2020 - Hamilton early champion amid COVID year, remains in title fight until final lap of 2021

Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 that forced most of the world into isolation until the summer, F1 had to cancel every race up to the start of July and improvised with a shortened calendar that crammed 17 races into five-and-a-half months. Despite the disruption, Mercedes was able to resume its dominance with an impressive W11 car, and Hamilton had secured the title by the Turkish Grand Prix with his 10th of 11 wins that year. The team's dominance was even evident when Hamilton had to miss the Sakhir Grand Prix after a positive COVID test, and was a puncture away from delivering George Russell's first F1 win when the then-Williams driver deputised for his countryman.

Owing to the financial implications of COVID, 2021's cars were effectively the same as those used in 2020; teams were allowed changes based on a token system that restricted the scope of updates between seasons. Simultaneously, every team needed to introduce a new floor as the bounding boxes were cut, largely to create a downforce reduction that would allow the same tyre compounds to be used. Mercedes' dual-axis steering system, which allowed the car to switch its toe settings through pulling the steering wheel to improve warm-up, was also banned.

The floor changes were suspected to have hurt Mercedes more owing to its lower-rake aero package, while the high-rake Red Bull had been less affected. This led to a season-long title battle between Hamilton and Verstappen, one that went down to the final lap of the race amid the highly controversial race directorial decisions of Michael Masi. With the removal of the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen, the Dutchman was easily able to take the lead to claim the 2021 title.

Mercedes retained the constructors' championship in 2021, but it did not produce a strong car for the start of the 2022-spec aerodynamic regulations - Red Bull had judged the return of ground-effect floors almost perfectly to lead into Verstappen's 2022 and 2023 triumphs.

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While controversial, Verstappen's 2021 title triumph has developed into three consecutive drivers' crowns and an era of Red Bull domination