After Formula 1’s gruelling marathon of a 24-round, 30-race season, the earliest events inevitably fade most quickly from memory. But one detail immediately recalls how much the first races of 2024 felt like a continuation of the previous season: Max Verstappen’s victory in the Chinese Grand Prix was his 11th from the previous 12 rounds.
He was on course to win the next one, too, until an untimely Safety Car handed victory to the driver who emerged as the strongest threat to Verstappen’s fourth consecutive championship title: Lando Norris. Yet even from the Miami Grand Prix, when Red Bull’s dominance first came under serious threat, Verstappen still won more races than any other driver.
But with the competition breathing down his neck for most of the season, it wasn’t just those wins which secured him the title, but the days he had to be content with second or lower. Verstappen was often just as impressive on those occasions as when he emerged from a refreshingly competitive field to snatch victory.
He did it in Canada, where he prevailed in a straight fight with Norris and George Russell in mixed conditions. And Verstappen triumphed again at Catalunya in another fight with the same pair.
At that point, few suspected the driver who won seven of the opening 10 rounds would not stand on the top step of the podium at any of the next 10. Indeed, Verstappen only took four podium finishes during that spell.
Max Verstappen
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 1 (x8) | 17 |
| GP finish | 1 (x9) | 6 (x4) |
| Points | 437 | |
However he correctly identified Norris as his prime threat in the championship and focused his energies on thwarting his rival’s efforts. Sometimes he did this through superior skill and strategy, as at Silverstone and Spa. Sometimes he had to minimise his losses, as at Zandvoort and Singapore, when the McLaren was untouchable, at least in Norris’s hands.
Other times Verstappen pushed the rules to the limit as he strived to delay or hinder his rival. At times he seemed quite prepared to accept the inevitable penalty which followed his actions, as when they collided in Austria, or in Mexico where Verstappen threw his car down the inside of Norris in a zero-percentage move at turn seven.
Verstappen stopped the rot in his points lead at Interlagos, where luck was on his side in the grand prix – though it wasn’t in qualifying – and he drove flawlessly in dire conditions. When he secured his fourth title with a conservative drive in Las Vegas no one could doubt it was fully merited, and arguably his best to date, particularly as it came without the acrimony of 2021’s tainted finale.
With the pressure off, Verstappen took a final win in Qatar, sweeping Russell aside at the start then spotting Norris’s yellow flag error en route to his ninth victory. Following that, it was strange to see him end the year in a needless clash with Oscar Piastri in Abu Dhabi. Until then, Verstappen had demonstrated utter mastery of the competition.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
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