The dark side of Max Verstappen: when speed alone isn’t enough to win in F1. The Dutchman claims his fourth world title in a season that perhaps tested him the most mentally. The memories of 2021 are distant and faded, with new challenges and rivals emerging. While Lando Norris doesn’t measure up to Lewis Hamilton, Max faced very different obstacles this year.
Rating a world champion is almost always redundant. Leading the drivers’ standings comes with the honor—and burden—of a perfect 10, as there is nothing higher to achieve. Yet even a perfect score reveals different shades, sometimes bright, sometimes dark. The 2024 season is painted with both, in an unexpectedly open championship that could have marked the end of an era.
For the first seven races, the script of an entire season seemed already written: Max Verstappen dominated everywhere, under any conditions. On reflection, it was perhaps Australia that first revealed cracks at Milton Keynes, but subsequent victories in Japan and China quickly made Melbourne’s brake issues a forgotten memory. From Imola onward, however, the championship began to shift.
Max Verstappen: lights and shadows in a season worthy of perfection.
While Italy awaited the much-anticipated updates to the “SF-24 EVO,” Imola made it clear that Lando Norris—and McLaren—would play a pivotal role in the season. Already a winner in Miami, albeit under fortunate circumstances, the Briton demonstrated in Emilia-Romagna that he could challenge #1 even in uneventful races.
Norris does not represent a new Lewis Hamilton for Max Verstappen. Too far from the experience of the seven-time world champion, perhaps too psychologically fragile. Yet his raw speed forced the Dutchman to lay his cards on the table, shedding the “nice guy” mask he had seemed to wear in the previous two seasons. The Spielberg duel would become the defining image of this friends-rivals battle.
Max Verstappen knows well that the MCL38 has now matched, even surpassed, his RB20. He knows Lando Norris could have scored more points than him from that point forward. He knows his greatest weapon, honed and sharpened in 2021, is an unmatched physical and brutal aggression on the grid. In Austria, he dealt a mental blow to his rival, already under the immense—and new—pressure of an open title fight.
The team, the track, the FIA.
A few rounds earlier, in Monaco, Red Bull’s growing struggles were evident. The car lacked correlation with simulations, struggled to improve, and was caught and surpassed by rivals. Max Verstappen’s frustration exploded over the radio in Budapest, during the peak of his most challenging moment of the season.
Often with the third—or even fourth—fastest car on track, #1 continued to capitalize on others’ mistakes. However, consistency alone seemed insufficient, and between Austin and Mexico, the second and third chapters of his duel with Lando Norris unfolded. The battles, intensified by Max Verstappen’s ferocity, showcased a driver unafraid of confrontation. Once again, in the United States, he dealt a heavy blow to his rival.
The FIA intervened to rein him in, imposing harsh penalties in Mexico City. The clash between the Federation and Max Verstappen had been brewing since Singapore, the birthplace of the “profanity scandal.” Internal pressures from a team losing key members and answers, coupled with external pressures from a surging McLaren, were compounded by top-down scrutiny threatening to crush him entirely.
The masterpiece of Interlagos: the champion’s apex
All the strength of a champion forged by tough paternal “training,” the ruthless Red Bull environment, and past duels was on full display in Interlagos. In a weekend destined to be dominated by McLaren, the Dutchman returned as the new “Rain King.” He won the race that could have definitively reopened the championship, closing the door on anyone aiming to dethrone him this year.
As mentioned, the rating for a world champion is redundant. Max Verstappen’s perfect 10 reflects a turbulent F1 season, highlighting both the strength of #1 and his dark sides. The moral judgment of his behavior on track remains subjective. Those who admire his old-school roughness will continue to do so, and vice versa.
In the face-off with Lando Norris, it’s clear that speed alone isn’t enough against Max. It requires a mental fortitude few on the grid have demonstrated. It demands cynicism and the ability to confront a driver who, under pressure, doesn’t shy away from a fight. Whoever wishes to dethrone him in 2025 has been warned.
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