Better than 2021? Verstappen on his fourth title + our take

Formula 1 world championship number four is now in the bag for Max Verstappen – but is it his best title yet?

There is some pretty stiff competition as his first title in 2021 was the result of one of the greatest championship fights of all time and he was record dominant in 2023.

Here’s what Verstappen and Red Bull think, as well as his rivals and The Race’s team.

Verstappen and Red Bull’s verdict

Verstappen was asked if this was his most impressive title-winning season at his own one-man FIA champion’s press conference, after sealing his fourth title with a fifth-place finish at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“I think so,” Verstappen replied. “Last year I had a dominant car, but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning 10 in a row.

“Obviously our car was dominant, but it wasn’t as dominant as people thought it was. It’s definitely my best season (2023). I’ll always look back on it because even in places where we maybe didn’t have the perfect set-up, we were still able to, because in the race our car was always quite strong, to win.

“But I’m also very proud of this season because for most of the season, I’d say for 70% of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead.”

Emotionally, 2021 will understandably never be beaten.

“Each championship has actually been very different in emotion,” Verstappen said.

“It’s never going to top the emotion of the first one because that’s what you set out to do and that’s your ultimate dream and goal, to win one.

“This season has been very different from the second and last year. And I think that’s very beautiful – because if they’re all pretty much the same, it’s not that exciting.

“Honestly, when I crossed the line I was just very relieved. I thought it was over. It has been a tough race and I am very happy that it rained in Brazil.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called 2024 “the toughest along with 2021” and says Verstappen has been “head and shoulders the best driver on the grid this year”.

He also drew attention to the work Verstappen has done out of the car this year versus previous title triumphs.

“Behind the scenes, he made a huge effort with the engineers and designers and on the simulator, more than in any of the previous years,” explained Horner.

“The way he has worked with the engineers and all the technical staff has been phenomenal.”

The verdict of the race

Scott Mitchell-Malm: This has been Verstappen’s best title.

2021 was the hardest. It was the first championship bid, up against Lewis Hamilton at his peak, and came down to a single decisive race – a race Hamilton would have won but for the way it was handled by FIA race director Michael Masi.

Despite that finish, and also Verstappen’s loss of control with some of his driving during the approach, I think the way Verstappen performed that season made him a worthy world champion. But he has gotten better since then. And it is indisputable that he was the best driver in 2024.

He was already that for the last few years. But like all champions with the best car, he didn’t get the credit he deserved in 2022 and 2023. This year he will find it easier to receive his flowers.

And there’s no denying that overcoming some of the hurdles in 2024 represents a greater achievement, even if it was less satisfying or enjoyable for Verstappen and Red Bull to do it this way.

Megan Cantle: It depends on what your definition of ‘best title’ is. If that includes record, complete dominance and winning 10 races in a row, then 2023 is his best title. But if it’s more along the lines of dealing with multiple drivers challenging for wins and a car that hasn’t been the strongest every weekend, and just ruthless consistency when others have had blips, then you can’t look past this year.

But even with that said, a title effectively sealed with a performance as good as Brazil could really be someone’s best. However you define it, it is undeniable that 2024 has been a special season for Verstappen.

Ben Andersen: His first was probably the hardest, but I’d argue this was probably his best – simply because Red Bull weren’t on theirs.

The car was absolutely the class of the field up to Miami; after that it was a mixed bag. Red Bull have been hit by the stronger development of McLaren and Ferrari this season, and while that lead was decisive, this feels more than the others a championship where Verstappen made the difference.

It is usually the case that you see the very best of the very best drivers when their backs are against the wall and they have a real fight on their hands. Verstappen’s ability to extract better results than the car probably deserved as the competition grew stronger made this championship far more straightforward than it might otherwise have been.

It also makes him more important than ever to Red Bull’s battle to reshape F1’s changing competitive landscape back to its own advantage. Red Bull simply cannot do without him.

Matt Beer: Bar Mika Hakkinen’s relatively brief peak and Fernando Alonso’s best Renault (first time) year, I always felt like no matter how excited we got about another driver or whatever, Michael Schumacher was just undeniably a class apart from everyone others online during the decade covering his title wins and matches. Other drivers shooting at him could be very entertaining, but even if you weren’t a Schumacher fan, you had to accept that he was the best.

It hasn’t been clear yet if we’re reliving it with Verstappen right now, or if this is more like the early/mid 2010s ‘multi-great’ era, with Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton overlapping in their best and dominant cars are the most important. influence on the title.

The number of rising stars that landed in F1 in the late 2010s made it look like we were going to do it again. Now I’m not so sure.

Verstappen, winning this title at a disadvantage to the car, through sheer stubbornness and with this level of team-mate annihilation, puts huge pressure on the likes of Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to prove himself in the next few years.

Glenn Freeman: McLaren seems content that 2024 has taught it a lot about how to challenge for a drivers’ championship next year. But the same goes for Verstappen.

Max has just won his fourth championship in a completely different way to the previous three. He has a lot of experience in how to get the most out of weekends where his car puts him at the back and, to quote his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, has learned that he “doesn’t have to win every single thing every single weekend”. .

Verstappen got this one over the line the hard way. OK, in 2025 he won’t have a points gap built up that he can protect, but in a title race where multiple teams and drivers could take points away from each other every weekend, Verstappen has already proven that he will leave very few scraps on the table for the rest.

Charlie Williams: His season lacked the on-track controversies of ’21 and the dominance of ’22 and ’23 – but is arguably Max Verstappen’s most impressive title-winning campaign to date.

Although I think he owes a lot of this championship to the opening rounds of the season, where it felt like we were going to rewind to the start of 2023, his ability to push a faltering Red Bull to its limits has been simply amazing to witness and his victory in Brazil epitomized all this – a deserving champion can win when the car is fastest and maximize the result when it is not.

Gary Andersen: In fact, this is the first really drivers the world championship Max has actually won. Yes, it’s number four, but the other three – or at least 2022/23 – came largely from car dominance.

This year he has had to fight for it, very rarely did he actually have the car to win. When he had it, he won – but the other races were a battle for the best points available. For proof of that, just look at his performance against Sergio Perez.

As the saying goes “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going”.

Josh Suttill: He had a weaker title antagonist in Norris this year compared to Hamilton in 2021, but in reality Red Bull’s performance crisis was the obstacle that very few other drivers in the history of the sport would have been able to overcome, not least with two rounds to go. go.

2024-specific Verstappen also wraps up the ’21 title ahead of Abu Dhabi.

The verdict of the rivals

Verstappen has long earned the respect of his peers with common praise from his rivals – with his beaten title rival Lando Norris summing it up well.

“He’s earned it. He hasn’t put a foot wrong, really all year. So that’s his strength, he’s got no downsides. He’s got no negatives,” Norris said.

“When he’s had the fastest car he’s dominated races, when he’s not at the fastest car he’s still been right behind us and almost won the races anyway.

“You can’t blame him anywhere.”

Meanwhile, Norris still believes Verstappen “had a relatively easy season” and believes he would have made more mistakes if McLaren had put him under more pressure earlier in the season.

Norris’ team principal Andrea Stella believes that “this title confirms that Max is one of the best drivers in Formula 1 history”, while Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur called it an “incredible achievement”.

Verstappen’s former arch-nemesis Lewis Hamilton said: “He’s done a fantastic job. He’s made no mistakes and he’s delivered every time and every point he has to.

“He and his team have done the best job yet again, fourth year in a row.”

Nico Hulkenberg said: “What a guy. He’s just so strong. So fast all the time, no matter the temperature or the conditions. Hardly makes mistakes. And you know, always just maximizing what he can even if he doesn’t have the winning car or the best car. Just huge respect for that and many, many congratulations to him, he did incredibly well again.”

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso even said there were things he could learn from what Verstappen has done this year.