Max Verstappen secures his fourth title win in a row ahead of schedule after a difficult last few months
Image: Keystone
Only Fangio, Schumacher, Vettel and Hamilton have also won four world championship titles in a row
Image: Keystone
Max Verstappen secures his fourth title win in a row ahead of schedule after a difficult last few months
Image: Keystone
Only Fangio, Schumacher, Vettel and Hamilton have also won four world championship titles in a row
Image: Keystone
Max Verstappen secures his fourth Formula 1 world championship title in a difficult environment. The Dutchman defies the Red Bull team's loss of power and internal squabbles.
No, he's not Superman, he doesn't want to be, he can't be. He has no supernatural powers, no X-ray vision, he is not invulnerable and cannot fly. Nevertheless, the comparison with the almost-everything-man from the fantasy world comes to mind. As a racing driver, Max Verstappen has something of the superhuman about him.
The superhuman Verstappen has been playing the leading role in Formula 1 for some time now. He is what he sees himself as, what he saw as his destiny in his early years in the world's most important racing series. His high level of driving skill has allowed him to set high goals. After a difficult start, accompanied by discordant tones, this conviction has quickly spread throughout his working world. The doubters and naggers who, as a teenager at the age of 17, denied his suitability for top-level racing were proved wrong in no time at all by Verstappen.
Verstappen's first ten years as a Formula 1 driver have produced numerous cinematic scenes. These include his first tangible result, which he achieved on his second start with seventh place in the Malaysian Grand Prix - as an employee of the Toro Rosso team and therefore not in a class 1 car. There is also the final in Abu Dhabi three years ago, in which he won his first title in a dramatic and controversial race.
The internal power struggles
After two seasons characterized by Verstappen's blatant dominance, in which the Dutchman switched gears and did as he pleased in by far the best car, the road to his fourth title win once again offered spectacle, both on and off the track. Verstappen held his own in a year in which he was no longer the sole entertainer in the Red Bull camp and certainly no longer the undisputed leading man. Internal squabbles and power struggles, at the origin of which team boss Christian Horner, who had come under fire "for inappropriate behavior towards an employee", became the focus of attention. The departure of designer Adrian Newey, for whom the poisoned climate deprived him of the basis for serious work, would provide enough material for a movie, as would the racing team's loss of sporting power.
The "Horner affair", which has caused upheavals right up to the company headquarters, and Newey's departure have put the structure of Team Red Bull in a precarious position. Verstappen has lost part of the breeding ground on which he was able to mature as a driver and as a person. The team spirit that has grown over the years and has been the basis for his great success is no more. The world champion no longer has the same working conditions. Only Helmut Marko, employed as a consultant in the motorsport department of the beverage empire, still enjoys his full trust from the bosses. Nevertheless, there will be no standstill. The new and old world champion will find solutions, also together with his father Jos, his most important contact outside the Formula 1 bubble.
The difficult conditions naturally affected Verstappen. He became more thin-skinned. He did not hold back with criticism and made his dissatisfaction public. The partnership with his employer was put to the test. In the meantime, the continuation of the collaboration, the fulfillment of his contract, which was valid until the end of the 2028 season, was even at stake. Spoiled by success, he found himself in a situation that had become alien to him as a perennial winner, throwing him back to a time when he and his teammates had found no means of holding their own in the title fight against Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team.
Verstappen became too much. The shifted power structure in Formula 1 gnawed at him, and the team's slide down to fourth place in the hierarchy caused him problems. The further development of the car in the wrong direction led to a resurgence of virtues in him as a driver that he seemed to have long since left behind and that he no longer needed in times of absolute dominance.
The boundaries that were crossed
Verstappen rediscovered the uncompromising and ruthless. In duels with Briton Lando Norris in the McLaren, which the technicians made number 1 in the Formula 1 fleet thanks to clever adjustments, he crossed the boundaries of what was permitted on several occasions. His ambition, his stubbornness, but also the thought of the danger of losing out in the title race, occasionally drove him to rash actions that turned him back into a red rag in the blue car.
Verstappen had not won ten Grands Prix in a row until he stormed from 17th on the grid to victory in the São Paulo Grand Prix three weeks ago on a wet track. It was a flawless performance, without any hanky-panky with the competition. It was the penultimate step towards another successful title defense. A world champion performance, absolutely worthy of a movie.
Without the Dutchman's help, the unsatisfactory phase would probably have lasted even longer or would have started much earlier. In the first third of the season, he was still winning when the technical advantages were no longer on his side, when not only the engineers of the McLaren team, but also those of the Mercedes and Scuderia Ferrari racing teams had done better development work. Verstappen achieved victories or podiums at that time thanks to his own ability. His driving skills allowed him to partially compensate for the car's weaknesses.
Verstappen will not be keeping a record of his latest exploits. He doesn't care about statistics and doesn't like comparisons with drivers from other eras. His sober approach has nothing to do with arrogance. Since winning his first title, he has only lived in the moment in his everyday sporting life. He saves looking back for the time after his career.
Verstappen will therefore take it in his stride that, with four world championship titles in a row, he belongs to a circle that only Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton have made it into. His record so far this season, with eight victories and five further podium finishes despite the turbulence, is also proof of an exceptionally good racing driver, a superhuman. The Dutchman does have something of Superman about him.
SDA
