Following a legendary win in the rain in Brazil in Formula 1’s last race, it wasn’t much of a question as to if Max Verstappen would win the championship, just when.
Once the Las Vegas Grand Prix began, the question seemed pretty well answered.
Needing to finish ahead of Lando Norris, Verstappen never fell behind the McLaren outside of pit cycles and finished fifth on the track. Norris could only muster sixth on a night when Ferrari and Mercedes were both faster than both of the drivers in title contention.
The moment Max Verstappen retained his crown đź‘‘#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/KG5eoheDoY
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2024
Only five other drivers in the 75-year history of F1 have won four or more championships. Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton both hold the record at seven. The great Juan Manuel Fangio won five in the 1950s.
Alain Prost won four in spite of rarely being the lead driver on a given team. Finally, Sebastian Vettel won four straight championships in a run with Red Bull in the early 2010s that mirrored Verstappen’s.
When Vettel won his fourth straight championship for Red Bull in 2013, it came after one of the greatest runs of domination a driver has ever had in a season. Nine straight wins capped off the season that year for the German.
Now, 11 years later, Verstappen’s fourth straight championship for Red Bull came in a season in which the team seems set on finishing third in the Constructors’ Championship.
If he does not win at Qatar or Abu Dhabi to close out the year, Verstappen would have won just one race in the last 14 races in the season. This is a mark not seen since Keke Rosburg won just one-in-16 in 1982 on his way to the championship.
With that in mind, Verstappen could only be reflective on his journey so far after the toughest challenge of a season he has had since his infamous battles with Hamilton in 2021.
“It’s been a long season,” Verstappen said in a podium interview session with both actor Terry Crews and 2009 champion Jenson Button interviewing him. “It was amazing, almost cruising. But then, we had a tough run, and the team kept together, working on improvements, and we pulled it off. Couldn’t be prouder of everyone, what they’ve done for me, and to stand here as a four-time world champion is something I never thought was possible.
“[I never thought I’d be winning four championships], I was just happy to be there. Getting wins, getting podiums, the things that are already very difficult to achieve. Then we just got onto that [2017-2020] run where it was a tough few years but we ended up trying. Then [in 2022], we hit the ground running with a new concept. To be standing here as a four-time world champion, it’s simply incredible.”
It’s wise to keep in mind that Verstappen did not just have to avoid mistakes. Red Bull Racing in general has had a number of situations and fiascos this season that would have sunk this championship bid for just about any other driver on the grid.
The year started off with team principal Christian Horner’s sexual harassment scandal, during which Jos Verstappen at one point said out loud that Horner should walk away from the team his son drives for.
Longtime Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley took a team principal job with Sauber. Legendary car designer Adrian Newey left the team right when the car turned south. Sergio Perez has been a mess. Daniel Ricciardo’s career ended at the junior team. At one point, even Verstappen himself said that Norris would win the championship.
And yet, after making no mistakes throughout almost the entire year, Verstappen clinched the championship a couple of races early anyway.
“It was a very challenging season, and also as a person, it was very challenging,” Verstappen continued on in the interview. “I still had to be calm. I still prefer last season, but this season really taught me a lot of lessons and I’m very proud of how we handled it as a team.”
Crews capped off the podium interviews by declaring that this is now officially a dynasty. And he’s probably right.
But at the same time, tomorrow begins the drive for five. One more championship before new regulations come in 2026 to turn this dynasty from just the second in Red Bull’s history to one equaling Hamilton at Mercedes and Schumacher at Ferrari.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.