Max Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive Formula 1 world championship with a fifth place finish at the 2024 F1 Las Vegas GP, but the trajectory of the season contrasted heavily to the dominance shown in 2023 as Christian Horner discussed.
The Red Bull boss described his season as inspirational for the whole team, as Verstappen went the “extra yard” with a car that wasn’t always up to the standard of F1 championship-winning machinery.
The 51-year-old heaped praise on the Dutchman, who becomes the second Red Bull to achieve his first four world titles in consecutive seasons, resembling Sebastian Vettel’s incredible run between 2010-2013.
As hard as 2021
He said it was the “toughest” title for them along with the historic 2021 decider that went down to the wire, and expressed how Verstappen’s “phenomenal” work ethic during tough spells propelled the team forward and ensured title number four:
“I think this was, together with 2021, the toughest [championship win],” said Horner about the latest F1 title for Verstappen. “This one we started the season very strongly, but by Miami, it was clear that McLaren had made a significant step.
“When you look back at the season as a whole, and you think back to the races he won in Imola and Barcelona and Montreal, that were all very tough, closely fought races. Through the summer months, when we were struggling a bit with the car, he was still second in Silverstone, second in Zandvoort. He was still picking up, you know, big podiums and results.
“And behind the scenes was putting a massive amount of effort in, with the engineers and designers and on the simulator, and more than any of the previous years. And I think he’s been outstanding this year. Not only what he’s done in the cockpit, and I think he’s inspired within the cockpit, but out of the cockpit as well.
“The way he’s conducted himself, the way he’s worked with the engineers and all the technical staff has been phenomenal.”
Working hard with the team and an inspiration
When asked to expand on the inspirational nature of his winning F1 campaign, Horner detailed how Verstappen has matured to the point of maximising races with the championship picture in mind, and accepting finishing second or third when the car was not quite on pace with its rivals – something that was very visible during the race in Las Vegas, as he barely fought to keep the Ferrari’s behind, as his main target was to finish ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren:
“He’s been inspirational from within the cockpit because weekend in, weekend out, he’s been delivering. And he’s driven brilliantly this year, and that obviously inspires the rest of the team.
“And I think that his self-confidence, his self-belief, you only have to watch the out-lap at the beginning of any Grand Prix weekend to see the level of confidence, the level of self-belief that he has in himself.
“He’s driven with real maturity this year because we haven’t had the fastest car at every race. And on the days that we haven’t had the fastest car, he’s made sure that he’s extracted the absolute best out of it and scored big points.
“I mean, the last couple of years he’s won at a canter, you know, this one he’s had to really dig deep. And he’s applied himself, he’s worked hard, he’s put the mileage in, he’s gone the extra yard with the engineers, spending time talking to the designers, to the R&D, you know, there’s 1,000 people in our team that make these incredible cars.
“And you need all of the departments to be working collectively to deliver big results. I think what Max has done is he’s really helped to inspire that and given phenomenal feedback and direction from what he’s needed when the tools weren’t [there], the wind tunnel wasn’t correlating with the track.
“It was his feedback that was enabled us to focus on this is the area you need to work on.”
Maximising the results
Aside from the maturity to maximise the races where the car wasn’t in the best performance window, Horner also recognised how the newly crowned four-time champion made the most of the occasions where the car was good enough, which he believes proved Verstappen was “head and shoulders” above his rivals during the 2024 F1 season:
“I think this one is a very special [championship] victory because obviously there has been challenges this year,” he said. “But I think that Max scored more than double the amount of race wins than any other driver. He’s won it with two races to go. He’s been head and shoulders the best driver on the grid in Formula 1, and I think what he’s really done this year is absolutely cement his position amongst the greats in the sport.
“And I think that both statistically and on the way that he’s driven, that’s unquestionable.
“Lando [Norris], since Miami, has had a faster car,” said Horner. “And you look at the win ratio, it’s heavily stacked in Max’s favour. So, you know, that’s taking nothing away from Lando, he’s driven very well this year – but I think Max has just been that step ahead.”
Digging deep after Monza
Despite the comfortable points lead Verstappen held for most of the season (the lowest it got after the first five races was in Brazil after the Sprint), he said the moment the team really feared the championship could be “slipping away” was around the Italian GP, as they continued to struggle with the RB20 just as McLaren was coming on song, after a truly dominant win from Norris in Verstappen’s home race just a week prior:
“Since Miami, I would say that was a turning point. And the car was difficult to drive. It was very difficult to drive.
“But he was able to adapt and get the most out of it. I think we’ve improved it in latter races. But certainly around Monza time, it looked like the championship was slipping away.
“[In] Monza, there’s still a long way of the championship to go, and we had a significant disadvantage [to] McLaren, Ferrari, and even the Mercedes at that point. The engineers have worked tirelessly, and the men and women behind the scenes have worked long hours, early mornings, weekends, to keep getting performance to the car.
“And for me, a real turning point was Austin, getting the sprint race victory there, getting on the front row for the Grand Prix, the podium that he scored there.
“And then, of course, Brazil was really the crowning moment in many respects. It was such an outstanding drive that that provided the match point here, and he converted it relatively straightforwardly.”
