Unyielding reign as Verstappen dominates F1 amid scandals and rival tensions

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 08, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

By Craig Ray

10 Dec 2024

Max Verstappen has cemented his place as one of Formula One’s greatest drivers after a fourth consecutive world title in 2024, which leaves the sport with more questions than answers.

The only thing fans dislike more than serial losers, is a serial winner.

And even though 2024 was not as easy for Verstappen and his Red Bull car as the 2023 title was when he won 19 of the 22 Grands Prix, it was still achieved at a canter.

Dutchman Verstappen, partly through his own unfiltered demeanour, and partly through a sport where the bulk of the media is British, is often cast as the villain.

In the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen took out McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in a reckless move at this level.

He later apologised to the Australian driver, but not before being handed a 10-second penalty by the stewards, which prompted a sarcastic: “Could we ask for 20 seconds, stupid idiots,” over the radio to his race engineer.

It’s been a year sprinkled with these little moments of tempestuousness that have helped fill column inches, podcasts and TV shows to disguise the fact that the sport is one-way traffic at the moment.

Best title

The 2024 title might even be the best of Verstappen’s four because it was achieved without a dominant car and with scandal surrounding the Red Bull Racing team from the start of the season.

Team principal Christian Horner was twice investigated and cleared for allegations of controlling behaviour towards a female employee, which included leaked inappropriate texts, allegedly sent by Horner to the staff member.

At the same time there was tension between Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, and the Red Bull team over the Horner issue.

Later in the year Verstappen was given a community service sentence for the crime of swearing at a press conference and “striking” against official F1 media duties.

By the end of the year Verstappen was in a feud with Mercedes driver George Russell, after being accused of driving too slowly during practice for the Qatar Grand Prix.

It kept the sport in the headlines, masking the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a seriously viable rival to Verstappen. Winning the world title with two races to spare is not a close season.

It was only viewed that way because it was less humiliating for the rest of the field than the 2023 campaign.

Unbothered

If the off-track skirmishes and occasional on-track scrapes bothered Max, it rarely showed. He had his huffy moments (show me an F1 driver who doesn’t) and got on with the job of crushing the hopes and ambitions of the field. Max started the 2024 season in the same fashion as he ended the 2023 campaign.

But when he put his helmet on, the noise of the media and fans dissipated. It was only him, the car and the track. Ironically, doing 34okm/h remains Max’s safe space.

Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races in 2024, effectively ending the title race before the halfway point. His retirement in round three in Australia due to a brake issue ended a nine-race winning streak going back to 2023.

There was a mid-season wobble when McLaren’s Lando Norris closed in on the points table as Verstappen went 10 Grands Prix in a row without victory, his longest winless streak in three years.

Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner. (Photo: Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

Lando Norris of Great Britain drives the McLaren MCL38 Mercedes during practice before the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 7 June 2024 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo: Clive Rose / Getty Images)

Max Verstappen makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. (Photo: Mark Thompson / Getty Images)

Some might point to that being a sign of a chink in his and Red Bulls’ armour, but even when he wasn’t winning races he was finishing in the points.

To underline his dominance as hope briefly dangled for Norris, Verstappen won two more races to complete the season with nine Grand Prix victories, taking his career tally to 63 race wins.

That’s a broad brushstroke of the numbers, and despite all the spin in the TV coverage and in the British media as Norris staged token resistance, Verstappen’s march to a fourth title was never in doubt.

Norris continued to talk a good game as the pressure mounted, but in reality he has a huge gap, both figuratively and metaphorically speaking, to close to catch Max in 2025.

“I don’t think people are scared of Max at all,” Norris told the media in Abu Dhabi. “Are people afraid of what probably he’s capable of at times, from a speed perspective? Do you go into some sessions and go ‘S**t, Max is feeling good this weekend, he's been good at practice, he’s going to be mega?’ One hundred percent.

“Same as with football teams and any other sport. When people are in good form and they’re performing well, you’re a little bit afraid of what someone’s capable of going out and doing from a performance point of view. No one’s scared. It just puts you on the limit.”

Class apart

He is a class above all the drivers in the field — the ageing seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton included — despite a car that was not always the best in the paddock.

His performance in the rain in Sao Paolo, in conditions that always expose the best drivers, was compared to the best of the late Ayrton Senna.

Verstappen started the race in 17th after a grid penalty, and gained seven positions on the opening lap as the conditions worsened. By the end, Verstappen won the race by 19 seconds.

He set 10 of the fastest laps ,with his best lap being more than a second faster than the second-best man on the track. It was a reminder to the rest of the field that he was the alpha dog in the pack.

To add insult to injury, Verstappen was quoted in Holland’s De Telegraaf as saying: “In a McLaren I would have been champion much sooner.”

Ouch.

Will he have the desire to continue to race at the highest level and will he be looking for new challenges away from Red Bull, or away from F1 completely?

It seems the only thing that can beat Verstappen currently, is Verstappen himself. DM

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