Max Verstappen roasts Zak Brown on live TV with ruthless reminder

Zak Brown’s claim that Max Verstappen only wins because Red Bull has the fastest car came back to haunt him when Verstappen landed a telling jab live on TV after beating Lando Norris for the 2024 world championship.

Verstappen wrapped up his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix as his P5 under the lights gave him an unassailable 63-point lead over Norris.

Max Verstappen couldn’t resist the light-hearted dig

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

The championship was Verstappen’s most challenging since 2021, when Red Bull’s fluctuating form meant that for large parts of the season he was not the driver in the fastest car on the grid, Norris was.

But according to Brown, at least “six, seven” drivers could have won the world championship if they had driven Verstappen’s car.

McLaren CEO told Beyond the Grid podcast back in May, after Verstappen had won four of the first six races of the season: “I don’t think without a star driver you win, so you need both.

“First, it starts with the car. People ask me all the time: ‘is it the car or the driver?’ And it’s like: ‘well, it’s both’.

“I think the way I characterize it, I think there are six, seven drivers on the grid who will be world champions in Red Bull.

“As great as Max is and he’s one of the best of all time, I don’t think Max will win the world championship today in any car other than Red Bull.”

Verstappen was quick to remind the American of his words when Brown interrupted an interview to congratulate the four-time world champion, adding: “You deserved it.”

“And as you said,” Verstappen replied with a smile and a hug, “before I could only win it in the fastest car. This year has been a little different.”

Brown took the ribbing well and again congratulated Verstappen before leaving: “Well done, well done.”

More on Max Verstappen’s championship success

Max Verstappen shuts out the noise to show nice guys finish last

The updated driver and constructor standings after the Las Vegas GP

Could Max Verstappen have won in a McLaren or Ferrari?

Speaking to the Dutch media after the race, Verstappen admitted that the barrage of criticism he and Red Bull have faced this season from the likes of Brown only inspired him.

“That kind of thing just motivates me,” he said. “If people are critical and think I can only win in the best car, I will prove them wrong.”

As for whether he’ll now take more credit for his success after being told it’s just the car, he laughed, “If I don’t get it now, I don’t know what else (I’ll do).”

In fact, if you ask the 27-year-old, he could have won this season if he had been racing Norris’ McLaren. “Yes, even earlier.”

Ferrari? “Pretty much the same, I guess.”

The Mercedes? “No, it would have been a little harder.”

Winning the championship in a season where Verstappen and Red Bull have faced numerous contentious issues from the Christian Horner investigation to constant questions about Verstappen moving to Mercedes, Horner applauded his driver Verstappen’s ability to step up.

“I think that in any adversity, adversity will always encourage a team, and that’s certainly what has happened with this team,” the team manager told the media, among others. PlanetF1.com.

And I think that there is a huge pride in this championship, that there is often noise or speculation and all that has been ignored, most of all by Max.

“He has not been distracted; he’s just come in and got on with the job and I think obviously there are areas that we need to improve for next year and the team is very focused very hard on that and how we build on this to consecutive championships.”

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