Even by way of 14 rounds of the 2024 season, there is no such thing as a query as to who probably the most excellent, quickest and most constant driver within the subject is thus far this 12 months.
To the shock of nobody, it’s the similar driver who has been clearly the most effective on the grid over the previous few seasons. And the motive force who will very doubtless declare this 12 months’s world championship title.
Max Verstappen loved a dominant two-year stretch over the primary two seasons of F1’s floor impact rules that even Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel or Lewis Hamilton couldn’t match. And within the early part of the 2024 season, it seemed prefer it was going to be enterprise as ordinary for the reigning three-times world champion.
Regardless of some dramatic tales popping out concerning the workforce over the opening months of the 12 months, Verstappen ensured that his workforce had been an image {of professional} perfectionism out on observe. Two rounds, two poles, two victories to begin the season in Bahrain and Jeddah. Though he secured a third-straight pole in Australia, Verstappen would undergo solely his first failure to complete for 2 years when his right-rear brake jammed on at first, forcing him to drag into retirement as his brake temperatures skyrocketed.
If Pink Bull’s rivals had been below the phantasm that they had been now susceptible after that setback, Verstappen quickly gave them a healthy dose of actuality with a crushing efficiency in Suzuka that gave him one other dominant victory. China was extra of the identical. Regardless of lacking out on pole for the dash race in a moist qualifying session, he rose up from fourth methodically to win earlier than securing pole for the grand prix and by no means wanting below risk of being overwhelmed within the race.
However after the primary 5 rounds of the season had been accomplished, it was as if Verstappen was hit by an adaptive issue spike. From this level on, he would by no means have issues fairly so simple on the entrance over the remainder of the season. Though he took one other dash pole and win Miami, he misplaced his lead within the grand prix after a Security Automobile got here on the excellent time for Norris. On the restart, Verstappen couldn’t match the McLaren’s tempo after struggling minor injury from hitting a bollard on the chicane and was compelled to accept second place for the primary time in what felt like eternally.
McLaren’s tempo was removed from a one-off, nevertheless, as Pink Bull quickly found. It took a slipstream from Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas on the finish of Q3 for Verstappen to simply beat Norris and Oscar Piastri to pole place at Imola, then he needed to maintain off Norris over some tense remaining laps within the race to safe victory quantity 5 of the season.
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Pink Bull arrived at Monaco to seek out that the RB20 had no love for the bumpy Monte Carlo streets. Sixth place was the most effective that he might handle in qualifying after brushing the barrier on his remaining Q3 lap and he completed in that very same place after an extended and boring race. However the actuality was that Pink Bull simply didn’t have the efficiency of their rivals across the road circuit.
Max Verstappen
| Finest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 1 (x8) | 11 |
| GP end | 1 (x7) | 6 |
| Factors | 277 | |
By Canada, it was extra than simply McLaren who had joined the social gathering on the entrance of the sphere. Now Verstappen was going through competitors from Mercedes too, with George Russell beating him to pole place in Montreal with an similar lap time. However over a difficult race in changeable circumstances, Verstappen confirmed how nice his expertise are, protecting calm and picked up all through the race whereas these round him faltered to safe one more victory. The subsequent day out in Spain, he would once more triumph by profiting from others failing to profit from their alternatives, getting forward of Norris at first and passing Russell for the lead quickly after and controlling the race from there.
That might be Verstappen’s most up-to-date victory to this point, nevertheless. At this level, Pink Bull had been actually caught by their rivals and had been arguably not the workforce to beat. However Verstappen continued to battle for the win, even managing to win his third dash race out of three on the Pink Bull Ring. He discovered himself below intense strain from Norris within the grand prix, nevertheless, resulting in an intense multi-lap battle for the win between the pair that led to catastrophe once they clashed at flip three, leaving each crawling again to the pits with broken vehicles. Whereas Verstappen was blamed by the stewards, opinion diversified among the many grid. However whereas Norris retired, Verstappen nonetheless got here house in fifth to increase his championship lead.
Life received no simpler for Verstappen at Silverstone, the place he compromised his qualifying by working off observe at Copse on a moist observe, damaging his flooring. Nevertheless, regardless of this setback, he nonetheless managed to salvage fourth on the grid. He struggled for race tempo early in comparison with the Mercedes and McLarens round him, however within the later laps with onerous tyres, he put Hamilton below intense strain and was simply seconds away from snatching one more victory.
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Pink Bull slipped away from the entrance of the sphere in Hungary, with Verstappen making little effort to hide his frustrations at his automobile’s lack of competitiveness in comparison with McLaren. However though he produced one other wonderful qualifying efficiency to line up third behind Norris and Piastri, his race was uncharacteristically ragged. He swore up a storm over the radio waves and clashed with Hamilton whereas battling over third, costing him a possible podium end and dropping him to fifth in a uncommon occasion of Verstappen not maximising his consequence.
Though he was not in rivalry for victory within the newest spherical in Belgium, he might at the very least be snug within the information he had an influence unit grid penalty guilty for that. He was nearly definitely the most effective driver on the observe at Spa over the weekend, setting the quickest time in qualifying by a major margin to line up eleventh on the grid, then climbing six locations within the race to complete fifth on observe, which grew to become fourth after Russell’s post-race disqualification.
With 277 factors, seven grand prix victories, three dash race wins, eight pole positions and 9 podium finishes, Verstappen comfortably sits atop the championship standings even having not received a grand prix in 4 rounds. By means of all his achievements thus far, it’s straightforward to miss the truth that he’s presently whitewashing workforce mate Sergio Perez on each Saturdays and Sundays in 2024 – though that claims much more about Perez than Verstappen.
Though he’s going through extra competitors now than he has for the final two years, there’s nonetheless little motive to doubt he’ll take title quantity 4 by the tip of the season. Solely an unprecedented collapse is more likely to deny him.
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