The plaudits poured in for Max Verstappen after he clinched his fourth world title within the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as his rivals queued as much as pay tribute to a towering achievement from a driver recognised as one of many all-time greats of Components 1.
Each single one in all Verstappen’s friends recognised this efficiency for what it’s – an virtually flawless season from a driver who didn’t have the perfect automotive for almost all of the season.
Lando Norris, who ran him closest, mentioned: “Huge congrats to him. He is deserved it. He has not put a foot fallacious the entire yr. That’s a power of his. He has no downsides, no negatives.
“When he’s had the quickest automotive, he dominated races. When he’s not had the quickest automotive, he nonetheless been simply behind us and virtually profitable the races anyway. He has not had any unhealthy races all yr. He has simply pushed as Max has at all times pushed, which is completely and may’t fault him wherever.”
“Distinctive,” mentioned Mercedes driver George Russell, who gained the race beneath the lights of Sin Metropolis. “He had a dominant automotive at the beginning of the yr and acquired the wins when he wanted to after which most likely thought he wasn’t going to win the championship.
“After which he delivered week-in, week-out and acquired the end result the automotive was able to and his rivals didn’t. I believed it was going to go proper to the wire and it didn’t.”
And Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who fought a titanic scrap for the title with Verstappen in 2021, mentioned: “He has accomplished a improbable job, not made any errors and delivered each time and each level he’s alleged to. Actually blissful for him.”
Crimson Bull workforce principal Christian Horner mentioned he believed this was the perfect of Verstappen’s 4 titles.
Verstappen felt 2023, when he and Crimson Bull broke all of the information for essentially the most dominant in F1 historical past, was “my finest season”, including: “Final yr I had a dominant automotive however I at all times felt not everybody appreciated what we achieved as a workforce. In fact the automotive was dominant but it surely wasn’t as dominant as folks thought it was.
“I’ll at all times look again at it as a result of, even when in locations we didn’t have the perfect set-up within the races, we have been nonetheless succesful to win races as a result of the automotive was fairly robust.
“However I’m additionally very happy with this season as a result of for many of it – I might say for 70% – we didn’t have the quickest automotive. However truly we nonetheless prolonged our lead so that’s one thing I’m very happy with.”
That is the mark of the actually nice drivers, to out-perform their automotive, take it to locations it maybe doesn’t deserve, and achieve this persistently, race after race, grinding out the outcomes when typically they don’t appear potential.
Regardless of McLaren approaching robust, and intermittent challenges from each Ferrari and Mercedes, Verstappen remained laser-focused on what he wanted to attain.
“From Miami onwards,” he mentioned, “more often than not we weren’t the quickest any extra and that’s very early on within the season – 50-60 factors could be very simply overturned in the event you maintain maximising factors and don’t do something loopy.
“I’ve skilled that myself in 2022. Something is feasible. I had that at all times behind my thoughts and targeted on what I might management and gave it every part each single weekend.”
Uncooked race outcomes do not inform full story
The uncooked statistics of race wins inform their very own story of Verstappen’s efficiency. He gained 4 of the primary 5 races and 7 of the primary 10. Then there was a five-month interval – a run of 10 grands prix – when he didn’t win in any respect.
When he lastly broke that duck, it was with a drive that may go down in historical past as one of many best of all time – within the pouring rain of Sao Paulo,
But even the uncooked race outcomes don’t inform the entire story of the size of Verstappen’s achievement. For that, it’s essential to dig a bit of deeper, into the uncooked tempo of the automobiles of the 2 title contenders.
Over the season as an entire, the Crimson Bull, even now, is the quickest automotive on common over one qualifying lap – by 0.078secs.
However that quantity is skewed by the scale of Crimson Bull’s benefit at the beginning of the yr.
Over the primary 4 races, the Crimson Bull was on common 0.436secs faster than the McLaren – and 0.265secs over the Ferrari, which was then the second quickest automotive.
However take out these first 4 races, and McLaren are the quickest by 0.006secs. And that quantity retains going up the extra of the early-season races you’re taking out of the calculation. To the extent that within the second half of the season, the McLaren is quicker on common by 0.124secs.
Regardless of the McLaren being a quicker automotive on stability following the Miami improve, Verstappen continued profitable in Imola, Spain and Canada.
And regardless of that efficiency image, over the season as an entire, Verstappen nonetheless has a better common qualifying place than Norris – 2.8 versus 3.4.
That is simply the uncooked tempo. Much more spectacular was how Verstappen practically at all times maximised his outcomes. It is arduous to discover a race when he and Crimson Bull did not get the perfect he might out of the automotive. Whereas Norris and McLaren between them will admit that in Canada, Silverstone and Monza no less than higher outcomes have been obtainable than they achieved. And there have been different races the place small margins made huge variations within the end result.
‘No one is unbeatable’ – who can cease Verstappen?
McLaren workforce principal Andrea Stella is a person who is aware of one thing about domination, overachieving and the significance of consistency.
He was Michael Schumacher’s race engineer at Ferrari when the German gained 5 consecutive titles.
He carried out the identical function for Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard took the title battle to the wire within the fourth quickest automotive in 2012, in one of many all-time nice seasons, which had there been any sporting justice, he would have ended as champion moderately than Crimson Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
And now he has needed to watch Verstappen do the identical to his workforce.
“4 world championships in a row and this title confirms Max is without doubt one of the finest drivers within the historical past of F1,” Stella mentioned. “And it’s virtually an necessary one for him as a result of probably previously, like final yr, folks may need thought it was simple to win races when you’ve gotten the perfect automotive. However it’s by no means simple to win so persistently.
“There are at all times so many the explanation why it could go fallacious. Already final yr driver and workforce have been working at a really excessive stage. However this yr, what he might extract from weekends when he didn’t have the perfect materials confirms we’re within the period of Max Verstappen and he deserves what he’s reaching.”
Verstappen paid tribute to the efforts of Norris – whereas additionally underlining the variations between their two seasons.
“We now have numerous unimaginable younger expertise within the sport and Lando is certainly one in all them and at instances he made it very tough for me,” he mentioned. “We merely didn’t have a solution in lots of races the place they have been simply clearly quicker and that made it tough.
“However to win a championship it’s a must to be constant and typically you attempt to overperform. It doesn’t occur each weekend, typically you may. And that’s what we did.
“McLaren in the intervening time are extraordinarily robust. Lando, to race a buddy of yours for the title is at all times completely different. We now have numerous respect for one another and I’m positive we may have numerous battles sooner or later.”
Verstappen’s 4 consecutive titles have are available in very completely different circumstances.
Towards Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen fought tooth and nail intensely all yr and clinched it in when the race director rode roughshod via the rule guide.
In 2022, he needed to overcome Ferrari’s quick begin, and went on to dominate the second a part of the season, type which continued into 2023 and the beginning of this season, earlier than drawing on all his skillset to keep up the lead regardless of his automotive’s efficiency benefit rapidly turning right into a deficit.
Norris mentioned: “I’m very happy with the workforce for placing up the combat for therefore lengthy. For catching up as a lot as we did.
“We have been the fourth finest workforce firstly of the season. We had too huge of a deficit to catch up and we couldn’t as a result of they’ve been too robust nonetheless.”
And regardless of acknowledging Verstappen’s high quality, others additionally really feel they will take him on given the correct automotive.
“No one is unbeatable,” Russell mentioned. “You undergo these phases the place groups and drivers collectively are dominating and other people assume: ‘If I went up alongside them, I wouldn’t have the ability to compete in opposition to them.’
“However it’s a must to consider in your self. After I teamed up with Lewis, Lewis is the best of all time and Max is correct up there with Lewis. So I additionally consider Max is beatable.”
