With 13 wins from 16 races, it is little wonder the new world champion is being hailed as ‘up there with the greats’
held a third Formula One world championship in his hands. Now the Dutchman has sealed the deal in Qatar after a season in which no other driver has had so much as a look-in, the nature of his relentless drive to the title can be fully appreciated. Some in the paddock even consider this the “Verstappen era”, and the 26-year-old has made a convincing case to be considered among the greats.Verstappen has all but redefined the terms of what constitutes a dominant season in F1.
The chasm between them is illustrative of the next level Verstappen has attained, appreciated not least by his Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner. “At 26 years old it is an outstanding achievement,” he says. “The manner in which he has done it has put him in the echelons of the greatest in the sport. To have won three titles in a row with the dominance that he had in 2022 and then this year is something the sport has not seen for a long, long time.
The team have without doubt played their part as they secured a sixth constructors’ title. Adrian Newey, their chief technical officer who has designed cars that have won 12 constructors’ titles and now 13 drivers’ crowns for three different teams, noted the level at which Red Bull and Verstappen have been operating. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in cars that have been dominant in the past, but we’ve never had this level of consistency,” he says.
In Belgium – where he already had a 125-point lead – during a difficult qualifying session he let loose at his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, questioning the team’s tactics after almost failing to make it to Q3. Both his upbeat demeanour and demand for excellence have played their part in the scale of the success this season, believes Horner.“It permeates, particularly in the garage,” he says.
Horner knows his driver can achieve so much more and with the regulations set until 2026 Red Bull still have to be caught, but even then there is no indication that beating Verstappen will be an easy task as he sets about defining an era with a smile on his face. “Since 2021, when he was outstanding, we then gave him a better car in 2022 and a better car again in 2023 and he has just maximised it every time,” says Horner.
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