Max Verstappen claimed that he would have the 2024 F1 title even earlier if he had Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari or Lando Norris‘ McLaren. The Red Bull driver sealed his 4th world title in Las Vegas as he finished the race ahead of his direct rival, Norris. This was his fourth consecutive title and the third one where he sealed it before the last race of the season.
For 2024, however, it was not a straightforward dominant season by any means. The driver started the season aggressively and won all but one race until Miami. The McLaren upgrade in Miami complicated things for both Red Bull and Max Verstappen because it was at this point that the team’s drop in form began.
Until the end of the season, while Red Bull continued to regress, rivals Ferrari and McLaren continued to progress and build a better platform with their cars. It wasn’t until Verstappen pulled off a brilliant drive in Brazil that the driver could feel secure about his title chances.
Once he secured the championship, however, in Las Vegas, the driver was questioned if he could have won the title in the other cars in the top 4, to which Verstappen said that he would have been able to achieve that in a McLaren and Ferrari, but doing so in a Mercedes might have been tough. As quoted by Motorsport.com, the Dutch driver said:
“Yes, even earlier, so [I would have been] further ahead. [With the Ferrari], pretty much the same I think. The Mercedes, no. I think that would have been trickier.”
The driver also addressed his slight altercation with Zak Brown. He had told the McLaren boss that this time around, he won the title in the slower car even though the American claimed that he only wins in the fastest car. Addressing the comments, Verstappen said:
“You know, things like that only motivate me. When people are critical or think I can only win in the best car, I will prove them wrong. If I don’t get [that credit] now, then I don’t know what I to do.”
Max Verstappen targets media trying to push silly questions to him and Lando Norris
Max Verstappen also took shots at the media, trying to ask silly questions about his relationship with Lando Norris. The 2024 F1 season has seen the Red Bull driver battle it out with the driver he has been friends with off-track, and that has led to a lot of questions about how the two are handling the situation off-track.
The Dutch driver also pointed out the role that the media plays in all of this, as he said:
“The media sometimes, they ask some questions which are a bit silly, or we give sometimes a bit of an answer, because we’re a bit pressured in this championship fight. Sometimes I find it a bit unfair when, Lando, for example, he gave a comment, and then a lot of fans, they fall out over it, ‘Ah, he’s not respectful’, or the other way around as well.”
Verstappen added:
“From my side, we respect each other a lot. Of course, at times we were under a lot of pressure as well, and we had our moments together. We had some clashes and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, I think we can always look each other in the eye and appreciate what we’re doing. We have a lot of respect on-track, off-track, and he’s a great guy, honestly, like he’s a great driver also. And I’m sure that also his time will come, that he will win titles.”
Max Verstappen has now won four world titles and is the second youngest to do that. The driver would be targeting a 5th in 2025 as he tries to achieve what only Michael Schumacher has been able to accomplish.
Edited by Hitesh Nigam
