Max Verstappen says that he’s particularly proud of his 2024 Formula 1 World Championship title because Red Bull didn’t have the fastest car for “70% of the season.” Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive title with fifth place in the Las Vegas GP, behind the four cars of Mercedes and Ferrari. Crucially he finished ahead of his last title rival, Lando Norris.
Verstappen admitted that a lot had to fall into place to win four in a row, and that such an achievement has once appeared to be impossible. “It sounds very good,” he said when asked about being a four-time champion. “Yeah, something that when you grow up racing and you see all these stats of some legendary drivers and you’re like. That’s very impressive, and I hope one day that I can even just be on the podium, win a race, maybe win a championship.’ It’s already hard enough to win one. Of course, then you also need a bit of luck to be in the right team situation to maybe win more. But yeah, luckily we did that. But I think that was more like the first three championships. Now this year, we hit the ground running well, but then we had a lot of tough races. And that is something I’m very proud of, in those tough races where we were definitely not the fastest car, we kept it together as a team”.
“We worked very hard back at the factory as well, remained calm, most of the times. And we barely made any mistakes. We really maximised or even overperformed in some places. Plus, our opposition also in a few places definitely didn’t grab the points that they should have. And all those things, of course, matter at the end of the day when you fight for a championship.”
Verstappen agreed with Christian Horner’s assessment that this was his best championship win to date. “I think so, too,” he said. “I mean, 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. Of course, our car was dominant, but it wasn’t as dominant, I think, as people thought it was. That’s for sure my best season [2023] I will always look back at, because even in places where maybe we didn’t have the perfect set-up, we were still capable, because in the race, our car was always quite strong, to win races. But I’m also very proud of this season because for most of the season, I would say for 70% of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something that I’m very proud of.”
Verstappen praised his team for the role they played in winning a fourth title in difficult circumstances.
“You always have to believe in yourself, but at the end of the day, it’s a lot of people that have to come together and a lot of things that have to come together with the car,” he said. “Especially in the middle of the season, where we had a lot of issues where we didn’t really understand what was going on. But then I’m also very happy and I’m proud of how the team reacted, responded, and turned it around a bit. At one point, it seemed like we were a little bit lost, but at least now it feels like it’s all a bit more normal. Of course, here in Vegas, I feel like it’s a very one-off event where it’s very cold and the track layout is also quite special.
“But in general, I do think that since Austin, we have turned it around a little bit and we’re a bit more in that fight again. And yeah, all credit to the team for that. Of course, I know that it’s been quite a tough season for us overall, also the constructors’, but at least we still won one championship.”
