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 System 1.
Each single one in every of Verstappen’s friends recognised this efficiency for what it’s – an nearly flawless season from a driver who didn’t have the perfect automobile for almost all of the season.
Lando Norris, who ran him closest, stated: “Large congrats to him. He is deserved it. He has not put a foot improper the entire yr. That’s a power of his. He has no downsides, no negatives.
“When he’s had the quickest automobile, he dominated races. When he’s not had the quickest automobile, he nonetheless been simply behind us and nearly profitable the races anyway. He has not had any dangerous races all yr. He has simply pushed as Max has at all times pushed, which is completely and might’t fault him anyplace.”
“Distinctive,” stated Mercedes driver George Russell, who gained the race beneath the lights of Sin Metropolis. “He had a dominant automobile at first of the yr and bought 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 bought the end result the automobile was able to and his rivals didn’t. I assumed 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, stated: “He has performed a unbelievable job, not made any errors and delivered each time and each level he’s alleged to. Actually pleased for him.”
Purple Bull staff principal Christian Horner stated he believed this was the perfect of Verstappen’s 4 titles.
Verstappen felt 2023, when he and Purple Bull broke all of the information for probably the most dominant in F1 historical past, was “my greatest season”, including: “Final yr I had a dominant automobile however I at all times felt not everybody appreciated what we achieved as a staff. In fact the automobile was dominant but it surely wasn’t as dominant as individuals 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 had been nonetheless succesful to win races as a result of the automobile was fairly robust.
“However I’m additionally very happy with this season as a result of for many of it – I’d say for 70% – we didn’t have the quickest automobile. 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 automobile, 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 doable.
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 stated, “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 for those who hold 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 may management and gave it the whole lot 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 can 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 little bit deeper, into the uncooked tempo of the vehicles of the 2 title contenders.
Over the season as a complete, the Purple Bull, even now, is the quickest automobile on common over one qualifying lap – by 0.078secs.
However that quantity is skewed by the dimensions of Purple Bull’s benefit at first of the yr.
Over the primary 4 races, the Purple Bull was on common 0.436secs faster than the McLaren – and 0.265secs over the Ferrari, which was then the second quickest automobile.
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 automobile on stability following the Miami improve, Verstappen continued profitable in Imola, Spain and Canada.
And regardless of that efficiency image, over the season as a complete, Verstappen nonetheless has the next 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 exhausting to discover a race when he and Purple Bull did not get the perfect he may out of the automobile. Whereas Norris and McLaren between them will admit that in Canada, Silverstone and Monza not less than higher outcomes had been obtainable than they achieved. And there have been different races the place small margins made huge variations within the end result.
‘No person is unbeatable’ – who can cease Verstappen?
McLaren staff 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 automobile in 2012, in one of many all-time nice seasons, which had there been any sporting justice, he would have ended as champion somewhat than Purple Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
And now he has needed to watch Verstappen do the identical to his staff.
“4 world championships in a row and this title confirms Max is likely one of the greatest drivers within the historical past of F1,” Stella stated. “And it’s nearly an necessary one for him as a result of presumably previously, like final yr, individuals might need thought it was straightforward to win races when you have got the perfect automobile. However it’s by no means straightforward to win so persistently.
“There are at all times so many explanation why it could go improper. Already final yr driver and staff had been working at a really excessive degree. However this yr, what he may 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 attaining.”
Verstappen paid tribute to the efforts of Norris – whereas additionally underlining the variations between their two seasons.
“We have now a number of unbelievable younger expertise within the sport and Lando is unquestionably one in every of them and at occasions he made it very troublesome for me,” he stated. “We merely didn’t have a solution in lots of races the place they had been simply clearly quicker and that made it troublesome.
“However to win a championship you need to be constant and typically you attempt to overperform. It doesn’t occur each weekend, typically you’ll be able to. And that’s what we did.
“McLaren in the meanwhile are extraordinarily robust. Lando, to race a pal of yours for the title is at all times totally different. We have now a number of respect for one another and I’m positive we may have a number of battles sooner or later.”
Verstappen’s 4 consecutive titles have are available in very totally different circumstances.
Towards Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen fought tooth and nail intensely all yr and clinched it in when the race director rode roughshod by means of the rule e book.
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 take care of the lead regardless of his automobile’s efficiency benefit shortly turning right into a deficit.
Norris stated: “I’m very happy with the staff for placing up the battle for thus lengthy. For catching up as a lot as we did.
“We had been the fourth greatest staff originally 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’ll take him on given the suitable automobile.
“No person is unbeatable,” Russell stated. “You undergo these phases the place groups and drivers collectively are dominating and other people suppose: ‘If I went up alongside them, I wouldn’t have the ability to compete towards them.’
“However you need to consider in your self. After I teamed up with Lewis, Lewis is the best of all time and Max is true up there with Lewis. So I additionally consider Max is beatable.”
