Crimson Bull workforce principal Christian Horner described Max Verstappen as “invaluable” to the workforce after his victory final weekend introduced him inside touching distance of a fourth world championship title.
Verstappen climbed 14 locations to win at a soaked Interlagos. It was his first victory in a grand prix since June, throughout which period Crimson Bull have discovered themselves more and more beneath strain from rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.
In consequence the workforce has fallen to 3rd place within the constructors’ championship. Verstappen’s workforce mate Sergio Perez hasn’t completed within the prime 5 during the last 15 rounds. Horner mentioned he couldn’t put a worth on Verstappen’s worth to the workforce.
“Max is invaluable,” he instructed Sky. “It’s not possible to place a quantity on. That was a champion’s drive, and there’s some nice drivers on the market, as everyone knows, however to face out and shine like that immediately – that marks him out, I feel, with a few of the greats now.
“The way in which he’s pushed, even after we had a troublesome automobile this yr, he’s by no means given up. He’s gone about gathering the factors and he’s all the time making an attempt to get the utmost out of the automobile.
Verstappen is contracted to Crimson Bull till the top of the 2028 season. Nevertheless the lack of a number of prime names from the workforce’s technical division, together with star designer Adrian Newey, in addition to the workforce’s impending transfer away from Honda’s energy models, has prompted hypothesis he may search an earlier exit. Mercedes is thought to have courted him for 2025 earlier than selecting Andrea Kimi Antonelli to switch Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.
Horner has little question Verstappen is the benchmark for contemporary racing drivers. “Within the moist and within the dry, he’s the very best on the planet in the intervening time,” he mentioned.
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