Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen was able to go into the final race of the 2024 season with no pressure on him.
Verstappen had already wrapped up his fourth Drivers’ Championship two weekends before heading to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, the underperformance of Sergio Perez across the season meant that Red Bull weren’t in contention to fight McLaren and Ferrari for the Constructors’ title.
It meant Verstappen could enjoy the race weekend but it didn’t go quite to plan.
The Dutch driver could only qualify fifth and his chances of winning a 10th race of the season ended at the first corner.
Verstappen apologised to Oscar Piastri after he collided with the Australian on the opening lap.
Piastri picked up a penalty of his own for crashing into Franco Colapinto but by the time Verstappen had served his 10-second penalty during his first pit stop, he was only ever going to be able to recover to P6.
In a report from Motorsport, Red Bull’s chief advisor Helmut Marko was followed behind the scenes throughout the last race weekend of the year.
He wasn’t overly positive about the final event of the year as a whole, but admitted one moment from Verstappen on the track did leave him ‘worried’.
Helmut Marko concerned after Max Verstappen qualifying wobble in Abu Dhabi
The report talks about how Verstappen finished the second practice session of the weekend in P17.
In response, Marko said: “When you are so far off, it is not about one thing.
“The most important thing is that we turn the situation around, although the problems seem less complex than in Qatar.”
A day later, Marko is in the Red Bull garage, watching on during qualifying.
Unusually, both cars have made it to Q3 – although Perez sets the slowest time of the session – while Verstappen appears to have kept a sliver of performance back to try and challenge the McLarens and Ferraris.
READ MORE: Who is Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko? Everything to know
Unfortunately, the 27-year-old is only capable of setting the fifth-fastest time and in response, Marko said: “We are not happy with that fifth time, because the turnaround seemed good.
“After the first run of Q3, we thought we were really good.”
However, the biggest moment of the session was a huge save Verstappen made coming out of the final corner.
He appeared to be accelerating towards the barrier and Marko said: “Well, I was a bit worried to be honest, because that could have been a big crash.”
Max Verstappen still searching for perfection even when nothing is at stake
Talking after that qualifying session, Verstappen said: “I should have been on the front row, but we never found the sweet spot of the car this weekend.”
It’s clear that even when the Dutchman hasn’t had the fastest car, he’ll do anything to try and win.
Verstappen’s strategy against Lando Norris was questioned at times, but ultimately, he was never penalised to such an extent that it would have changed his approach to racing the Brit.
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And while George Russell started a feud with Verstappen over comments he allegedly made in Qatar, the Dutchman then proved with his outright pace just how quick he is.
Throughout the second half of the season, Verstappen never had the quickest car, but still ground out impressive results.
He’ll be hoping his 2025 title challenge is more straightforward than this campaign has been.
