Max Verstappen clinched his fourth World Championship under the lights in Las Vegas, after outscoring title rival Lando Norris.
The McLaren driver finished in P6, having needed to outscore Verstappen by three points to keep his title hopes alive. This looked possible, as Red Bull was facing straight-line speed issues with its rear wing.
The team initially used a higher downforce specification in practice and a trimmed-down version in qualifying, although in the race, this proved manageable for Verstappen as he stayed ahead of Norris.
Verstappen’s championship hopes looked like a forgone conclusion at the start of the year when he kicked off 2024 with seven victories in the first 10 races.
A subsequent 10-race win drought between the Spanish and Sao Paulo GP wins Verstappen’s title under threat from Norris and Charles Leclerc and provided Red Bull with a ‘wakeup call’ if they wanted to win a fourth in a row.
Reflecting on their fourth title-winning year together, Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has highlighted one thing that his rivals will find ‘frightening’ when speaking to Viaplay.
Max Verstappen’s continuous improvement ‘frightening’ for F1 rivals
Although Verstappen did not eclipse his win record from last year, the 2024 season has been one of his biggest tests since 2021 given Red Bull hardly had the quickest car throughout the season.
The performance between teams has fluctuated a lot, with Mercedes emerging as the quickest in Las Vegas despite not winning a race since before the summer break.
Lambiase, who has worked with Verstappen since he joined Red Bull in 2016, has highlighted why he thinks his rivals will find it tough to beat him when the field converges even more in 2025.
“This is the problem for the other drivers, about Max, he is a beast that just keeps on improving year on year,” said Lambiase.
“Just when you think he’s reached his peak he takes another step. That must be frightening for everyone up and down the grid.”
Red Bull in chase for Constructors’ Championship
Red Bull currently sits in third and is 49 points off leaders McLaren with two races left in the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Mathematically they can still win it, but would need to hope for McLaren to not score any points with at least one driver in either of the next two races.
| Position | Constructor | Points |
| 1 | McLaren | 608 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 584 |
| 3 | Red Bull Racing | 555 |
Much of Red Bull’s deficit stems from Sergio Perez, who has only managed to score nine points in the last six races compared to Verstappen’s 100 points.
Red Bull is expected to make a change for 2025, given Perez is reportedly in breach of his contract now that he is over 200 points behind the Dutchman in the Drivers’ Championship.
