George Russell plans to give Max Verstappen a “proper” title fight next season, claiming Lando Norris should’ve taken it down to the wire this season.

Verstappen secured his fourth successive Drivers’ Championship title in Las Vegas on Saturday night as he raced to an unassailable 63-point lead over Norris.

George Russell: It’s about time somebody gave him a proper fight

The McLaren driver was Verstappen’s only threat this season and looked set to take the title fight all the way to Abu Dhabi when he slashed what had been Verstappen’s 84-point lead at the midway point of the season after Silverstone to just 44 points after Brazil’s Sprint.

However, 24 hours later it was over bar the shouting as Verstappen broke his winless streak as he raced from 17th on the grid to first in the Brazilian Grand Prix while mistakes cost Norris. The gap was back up to 62 points.

Verstappen only had to finish ahead of Norris in Las Vegas to guarantee a fourth World title and he did so, P5 in a Grand Prix won by Russell.

The Mercedes driver was bullish after his victory, his second for this season, and declared next year he’d give Verstappen a proper championship fight.

“I just want to make sure we get in that fight now,” he told Viaplay, “because it’s about time somebody gave him a proper fight. That’s my plan, that’s what I want to do.

“He’s a fierce competitor and Red Bull are doing amazing but this championship probably should’ve gone down to the wire.

“You could argue that Max probably wasn’t the favourite at one point and yet he wins it with races to go.

“So we need to get our stuff together to make it a bit more challenging.”

More on Max Verstappen’s championship success

👉Max Verstappen shuts out the noise to show nice guys finish last

👉The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Las Vegas GP

George Russell warns Verstappen: Nobody’s unbeatable

Russell is adamant Verstappen is beatable.

Speaking to the media including PlanetF1.com during the post-race press conference, he was asked if he was confident of taking the fight to Verstappen.

“Yeah, definitely,” he insisted. “Nobody’s unbeatable.

“And you go through these phases where teams and drivers together are dominating and people think if I went up alongside them, I wouldn’t be able to compete with them. And you’ve got to have belief in yourself. I think, you know, the three of us here [Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz included] all believe in ourself.

“And for me personally when I teamed up with Lewis, Lewis is the greatest of all time. And Max is right up there with Lewis. So, yeah, I absolutely believe in myself that we could fight him in equal machinery.”

However, his soon-to-be-former team-mate Lewis Hamilton was a bit more cautious as he acknowledged Red Bull’s dominant form in the opening rounds that gave Verstappen a head start in the title race.

“It really depends whether they have a second-and-a-half advantage at the first race again like they did this year,” said the 2025 Ferrari driver.

As for Carlos Sainz, although he awarded Verstappen the ‘Driver of the Year’ accolade, he too believes the Red Bull driver can be beaten if of course the other teams’ cars are on a par with the Red Bull.

“As much as I think Max has done an incredible job this year, it just shows the second half of the season, eight drivers within a tenth of each other. We could all beat him week in, week out,” said the Spaniard, who is making way for Hamilton at Ferrari and will instead for Williams in 2025.

“He was extremely good, you know, at dominating with a dominant car and extremely good at not making mistakes the second half of the season. And that’s what’s given him, for me, Driver of the Year and the championship.

“But the second half of the season just shows that when we are all in equal, more of an equal machinery, we can all go up against each other and make each other’s life difficult.

“Everyone starts making mistakes when they’re under pressure and everyone starts complaining about their car and everyone starts complaining in the media about their car. And, you know, it’s all about pressure management and not having that margin. Whenever you don’t have a two, three tenths margin on your nearest rival or your teammate, suddenly a pressure ramps up and everyone is human.”

Read next: Las Vegas GP conclusions: Verstappen unbeatable, Hamilton v Leclerc clues, Red Bull warning