Formula 1
How Max Verstappen joined Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as a four-time Formula 1 world champion only underlined what we already knew about the Dutchman: that at 27 his place is assured among the few, as one of the greatest racing drivers we’ve yet seen – and, much like Michael Schumacher, he will probably always stoke anger over his hard-edged character and approach to wheel-to-wheel racing.
For a while we feared 2024 would be more of the same following his near-whitewash last year. Verstappen won seven of this season’s first 10 races to open up a gaping lead – which was just as well given how the season would then turn.
The toxicity of Christian Horner’s allegedly inappropriate behaviour to a female employee at Red Bull tarnished the opening weeks. Horner was cleared of misconduct and brazenly rode out the storm, but the cost was heavy. The loss of Adrian Newey, eventually to Aston Martin, will surely have a profound knock-on effect, if it hasn’t already. Newey’s bombshell coincided with Red Bull’s sharp decline, as Verstappen struggled with the tricky RB20.
At the same time, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes pulled their acts together, to varying degrees, with all of their drivers winning races in what turned out to be a superbly competitive and entertaining season.
Suddenly, Verstappen was on the back foot and that inevitably triggered his petulant streak. But, impressively, he never cracked. This was a flawless campaign as he kept his score ticking over despite Red Bull’s downturn in form, and when he finally ended a four-month losing streak with a sensational wet-weather comeback from 17th on the grid in Brazil, Verstappen had fully earned his fourth Formula 1 crown.
Lando Norris emerged as his only threat for the title, although the points gap would have required a record-breaking effort to overcome it. As the 25-year-old freely admitted, there were too many mistakes as he suddenly found himself in a genuinely pace-setting McLaren for the first time. He’ll learn so much from the experiences of this year.
Meanwhile, McLaren’s revival under measured team principal Andrea Stella is proof that in this era Mercedes customer status is enough of a basis to fight for world titles, and with fellow first-time GP winner Oscar Piastr i in the other papaya car, the team boasts arguably the most potent driver line-up.
Season highlights? Lewis Hamilton’s ninth British GP win was special, ending a 945-day victory drought. His move to Ferrari for 2025 was the year’s biggest story, announced before the season began. The seven-time champ will be 40 in January but remains an inspirational F1 force – even if Mercedes team-mate George Russell comprehensively out-qualified him this year.
After two years of Red Bull domination, F1 was back to its best in 2024 – to the relief of anyone not connected to Verstappen. It ’s never been tighter: in Norris, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Charles Leclerc and more, it has a stellar cast of winners – and any one of them will believe they can dethrone Verstappen in 2025. Bring it on.
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Maybe have been a good season, but nxt yr would be better without Verstappen,can't say he's a good champion,zero personality and all that, and yes I stopped watching F1 just about the time he arrived.
Max won the WDC because he had the best car for first 10 races and a hopeless team mate who'd never take points off him.
Probably be the same next year as once again he insisted on having an unproven driver who came 3rd in F2 and didn't even beat his, below par, F1 team mate in 2024. They could have had Sainz ffs.
Just look at the other top 3 teams, in each case both drivers are capable of winning the WDC and will no doubt fight amongst themselves, I cannot see that happening at RB.
or, a less jaundiced view would be that Max won the WDC because he's currently the best driver on the grid.
In 2024 Max was voted driver of the year for the fourth successive year by Formula 1’s team principals in their annual poll.
For the first time ever all team bosses voted unanimously to put Verstappen top (so Stella, Wolff, and Vasseur rated Max over all their own drivers).
Not jaundiced at all, just observations borne out by the situation and facts.
If you think polls are more important than cars, team mates and teams that's fine.
xxxx, you must be right. you have all the facts and lap by lap telemetry and race simulation vs actual data and the team owners and teams have none. i'm sure if anyone knew who you were and how much of a difference you can make to an f1 team with your brilliance you'd be headhunted by all the top teams offering you ridiculous money to join them. oops, sorry, that's not you, that's the guy renting space in your head, max verstappen.
No one can deny the performance advantage max had with clearly the fastest car at the begining of the championship, and advantage he lost but no one individual gained.
None of this denies Max's greatness.
Folsom, nothing to do with being right or wrong it was just some thoughts and facts. If it makes you feel better then I'll say MV is 10 times better than Senna, MV is the best F1 driver ever and will never be bettered, there feel better now.
Come to think of it you write like MV acts, never wrong and always wanting things his way or no way.