Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen will look back very fondly on the 2024 F1 championship after securing his fourth consecutive title.
Off the back of the 2023 F1 season that saw Red Bull win every race except for the Singapore Grand Prix, Max Verstappen didn’t have it all his way this year.
By the time Verstappen lost out to Lando Norris in Miami, it became clear that the RB20 was no longer the fastest car on the grid.
They never regained that advantage and Verstappen had to fight tooth and nail to maintain his lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
The Italian Grand Prix at Monza highlighted that Red Bull had the fourth-fastest car on occasion, which makes Verstappen’s 14 podium finishes all the more impressive.
Verstappen was lauded for his victory in Brazil when he came from P17 to win a torrentially wet race, before showing plenty of fight to secure victory in Qatar.
However, the Dutchman really struggled on other occasions and speaking on the Talking Bull Podcast, he explained there was one race weekend, in particular, he never wants to think about again.
Max Verstappen never wants to think about the Hungarian Grand Prix again
Verstappen was asked which race was the most stressful during the 2024 season and said: “Well, I think Hungary was quite eventful. Let’s say it like that.
“Yeah, I would call it eventful. I prefer not to actually think about that weekend again.”
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Going into the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen had just finished on the podium at Silverstone behind Lewis Hamilton despite Red Bull’s car arguably being slower than all of their closest rivals.
The 27-year-old qualified third at the Hungaroring behind both McLaren drivers, but got the jump on Norris heading into the first corner, before being forced to give back the place after passing him off the track.
Verstappen was furious with Red Bull’s strategy calls during the race, leaving him playing catch-up as he was undercut by Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Eventually, Verstappen spun trying an ambitious overtaking move on Hamilton heading into the first corner.
Verstappen’s race engineer was exasperated on the pit wall and he finished P5, more than 21 seconds behind Oscar Piastri as he took his first Grand Prix victory.
Max Verstappen faces his toughest task yet retaining F1 title in 2025
It’s not going to be easy for Verstappen to match Michael Schumacher’s feat of winning five consecutive championships.
Hamilton could never manage it but he’ll be a strong contender to win his eighth title after joining Ferrari for the 2025 season.
Verstappen finds racing Hamilton more stressful than Norris but both Brits should be in competitive enough cars to challenge him at every race weekend.
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The question is whether Red Bull can solve the issues that saw them lose ground on their rivals as the season went on.
Verstappen will be joined by a new teammate in Liam Lawson for 2025, and while his goal won’t be to beat the Dutchman, he needs to be much closer in terms of one-lap and race pace than Sergio Perez was this year.
That would take the pressure off Verstappen and allow Red Bull to use Lawson in tactical battles with other teams where before the four-time champion has had to fight for victories on his own against pairs of teammates.
