How Max Verstappen won the title without F1's best car

Max Verstappen is a four-time Formula 1 world champion and this title has really been earned the hard way.

Wrapping things up with two races to go means the final standings will reflect very well on Verstappen once again. It has been an excellent season, but if anything the points totals and the race wins column do him a disservice.

A season that hinted at total Red Bull domination with Verstappen’s early 2024 form ended up needing a massive effort to get the title over the line with car that wasn't F1's fastest.

Our video explains the factors that made the difference.

00:00 Verstappen's incredible fourth title
00:46 McLaren breakthrough came too late
02:41 Too many missed chances
04:22 Verstappen's relentlessness
05:59 Controversial clashes helped Max
07:55 What team orders really cost
10:26 Late flourish team and driver

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[RosalieRobb]

If you eliminate the first seven races and begin counting from Monaco:
VER: 242 points; NOR: 239 points
PIA 215 points
LEC: 206 points

That consistency, even without the finest car, is why Max deservedly won the title.

[askeladden]

People forget that even after Miami, Max has more points than Lando. So it isn't really all about his early lead. He has just been that much more faster and consistent.

[quigglyz]

Haters say "Max had the fastest car for 5 races." That would be a great argument if the season was 8 races long.

[Hyloshit]

Yes, it's like Jenson Button. But the bigger question is why and why Lando can't be dominant in the fastest car just like Max and Lewis or Alonso could.

[blakebarone]

From Miami, Max treated Lando as someone who could steal his crown, while Lando/McLaren treated the championship as something they could merely get close to.

[pk]

Yes he built a massive lead in the beginning but lando had 17 or so races to catch up. He literally had to outscore max by less than 5 points per race weekend when he has a faster car.

The argument that he only won because of an early lead is bull. Especially considering as of Miami he has still outscored lando in total points.

[aaron_ow]

Max will be remembered as one of the best drivers in the sport, this season was a clear demonstration of his skill and ability to drive a car that simply shouldn't have placed where it finished.


There's no denying that the inital race wins helped alot, as well as Mclaren/Lando's shortcoming's, but Max really had to show his worth for the title to come to fruition as the season shifted out of RedBull's favour.

[ZPaul_]

Lando fumbling races left and right did Max some huge favors

[Vladx]

Skills as well as killer instinct. And also adapting the strategy to what's going on around on track.

[mr.lucien]

Congratulations to Max showcasing he's one of the greats. Maximised having the fastest car early on, then his skill, and Norris and McLaren incompetence saw him to the end.

[greenhat]

This season sealed Verstappen’s legacy as one of the greatest to ever grace the sport. Past years deniers have the excuse that he has the better car, and it’s all the car and not the driver; but this season overall McLaren had the better car, if Max and Lando swapped places he probably would’ve secured the championship a couple races earlier, it really shows his race craft and resiliency to win with this car and without a teammate.

[jadhamizan]

Make no mistake, it was Max's brilliance that won him the title. He became a champion in spite of the team rather than because of them.

[steve]

I think we can all say is 2025 is gonna be wild. All 4 teams are gonna be super strong at the end of these regulations and it really is gonna be a toss up on who will win. You have Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, LeClerc, Hamilton, and Russell all gunning for a championship.

[arjandeboer]

Max won the title in Brazil. One of the best performances ever shown in an F1 race

[SofiaBaezzato]

Stop this narrative that he won without a dominant car. He had a dominant car for one-third of the season. For another one-third, he had the same car as everybody else, and in the last one-third of the races, three different teams had the fastest car. If McLaren had had a dominant car like Red Bull had at the beginning, it would have been a different story.

Not to mention that there is a huge point gap between first and second. He won more races then everybody else this season, thanks to that dominant car. That should be enough to build a big margin for the rest of the season. To be honest, apart from Brazil, Ver made many errors this year when he found himself to confront "in the same machinery" so I don't even know what people is talking about.

Not a McLaren fan here, but I've been watching F1 for 25 years and I'm so tired of these DTS-kind of BS.

[Bladel]

There's nothing controversial about Verstappen's clashes. At least, when you understand the concept of sports in general. Like other really great drivers in the history of F1, he knows the rules and how to use them to get an advantage. Nothing different than in football, for example (soccer for that part of the world where football is mainly played using hands). A player commits a foul and will happily take a yellow card for it when the objective, preventing the opponent to create a situation from which their team can score, is reached. In F1 the time penalty is the equivalent of the yellow card in football. As a bonus, in F1 two yellow cards will not lead to a red card, a black flag. F1 pundits or F1 fans should not blame a driver for using the rules to gain an advantage. When they don't like it, they should direct their anger to the FIA who made the rules and demand a change. Any driver that doesn't understand it or refuses to do the same, isn't going to get far in the WDC and shouldn't even be on the grid.

[meislit]

If you delete the first 7 races, and you start counting from monaco:
VER 242 Poinits
NOR 239 Points
PIA 215 Points
LEC 206 Points

That consistency without the best car is why Max absolutely deservingly won that title, no debate.

[Bryn-Snow]

From Miami, Max saw Lando as a threat to his title, whilst Lando and McLaren saw the championship as something they could only come near to.

[mikusikse]

Let's be honest, the Lando'es car got a chance to win, not him.

[erasmus_locke]

Norris throwing away points consistently over the season certainly helped.

By my count he's lost well over thirty (+30) points.