From comeback charges to wet-weather magic – Five key moments across Verstappen’s fourth title-winning season

Max Verstappen added his name to the list of four-time F1 world champions with a composed drive to fifth position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but it was only a small part of his latest triumphant year. A few days on from retaining the crown, we present five moments and sequences that defined the Red Bull driver’s 2024 campaign…

Quick out of the blocks

First on the list is a set of races, rather than one encounter, with Verstappen winning four of the opening five rounds – which could have been a clean sweep had it not been for technical trouble in Australia – to build a commanding championship lead.

Indeed, after F1’s visit to China, he was already the equivalent of a victory up on team mate and then nearest challenger Sergio Perez in the standings, and the Dutchman increased that to 69 over McLaren’s Lando Norris by making it an impressive seven wins from 10.

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It was not all plain sailing for Verstappen, though, as he publicly noted balance issues with the RB20 despite this success, while the Norris/McLaren package grew stronger via an effective upgrade package that contributed to a breakthrough win in Miami.

After their season took a turn for the worse, Verstappen and Red Bull’s strong points-scoring to kick off the year – when rival teams were working hard to close the gap and had no guarantees of doing so – would prove crucial in the race for the title.

Getting stuck in with Norris

Following the relative dominance of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan and China, wins over Norris in Imola and Spain were settled by just seven-tenths and 2.2 seconds respectively, and the McLaren man was leading in Canada until a Safety Car derailed his efforts.

Given their teams’ converging performance levels, it was inevitable that the hunter in Norris and the hunted in Verstappen were going to meet each other on track at some point and, during a closely fought Austrian Grand Prix weekend, that’s exactly what happened.

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Verstappen led the majority of the race from pole position, but a slow final pit stop opened the door to Norris, who made several overtaking attempts before the pair dramatically came to blows through the Red Bull Ring’s tight Turn 3 with only a handful of laps remaining.

Both drivers picked up significant damage and punctures but, crucially, while Norris’s victory bid turned into a costly retirement, Verstappen finished the race in fifth – despite being penalised for the incident – and extended his advantage at the top of the standings.

Mid-season damage limitation

Red Bull’s struggles only appeared to intensify as the season developed, with Verstappen more and more vocal about what he was experiencing behind the wheel and Austria marking what would be a 10-event run without a victory – and featuring only four podium finishes.

While McLaren, along with the hot and cold Ferrari and Mercedes, picked up race wins across this middle phase of the campaign, Verstappen’s approach had to shift from taking the chequered flag first to securing however many points were available to him on any given weekend.

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It was something he achieved more often than not, with the scene set at Silverstone – the race just after that Red Bull Ring clash – when his car was out of sorts but he somehow crossed the line second between home favourites Lewis Hamilton and Norris.

Another decisive moment came a couple of races later in Belgium when Verstappen started back in 11th after an engine penalty and expertly worked through the field to finish fourth – one spot in front of Norris again and thus increasing his points lead to 78.

Taking lessons from Monza and Baku

Monza marked arguably the toughest weekend of Red Bull’s season, with Verstappen and team mate Perez lapping almost a second away from pole position in qualifying and finishing the race 38 and 54 seconds respectively behind Charles Leclerc’s race-winning Ferrari.

But that nadir, which involved another slew of set-up experiments and floor comparisons, finally gave the Milton Keynes outfit some much-needed answers – team boss Christian Horner noting that a “very clear issue” and “disconnection in balance” had now been identified.

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From there, Red Bull started to show signs of a recovery, making further progress via some floor tweaks in Azerbaijan and then taking back-to-back podium finishes for the first time in several months with a P2 finish in Singapore and a run to third at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.

Shortly after Verstappen’s fourth title was confirmed on the streets of Las Vegas last weekend, his long-time engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, praised the 27-year-old for “the effort he put in in the office with all us guys” to aid that comeback and for taking “another step” as a driver.

A wet-weather drive for the ages

Verstappen and Norris arrived in Brazil off the back of further squabbles in the United States and Mexico, which sparked debate throughout the paddock as to what is and is not acceptable when it comes to attacking and defending – penalties being handed out on both sides.

At this stage, the gap between the title contenders stood at a reduced 47 points, which came down to 44 when Norris won the Sprint race and looked set to be cut once more as the Briton topped a wet and wild qualifying and Verstappen dropped out in Q2 amid a red flag.

But Verstappen regrouped for the Grand Prix a few hours later and, just 11 laps in, was up to sixth, with a subsequent, brave call to stay out on ageing intermediates during another patch of heavier rain – while leaders Norris and George Russell pitted – promoting him to second.

READ MORE: ‘I’m really proud of him’ – Verstappen’s race engineer Lambiase on Dutchman’s ‘real strength’ in the wake of his fourth championship

A red flag this time played into Verstappen’s hands, with track position secured and drivers free to change tyres, but that took little away from his performance up to that point, as well as the move he pulled on Esteban Ocon for the lead at the restart and how he romped clear thereafter.

Verstappen had ended his victory drought and dealt a hammer blow in the title battle, with Norris struggling to sleep in the days that followed given the points swing and the reigning champion admitting post-race in Vegas that he then knew title number four was in the bag.

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