Max Verstappen now sits alongside Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel in terms of Formula 1 world titles. Only Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are ahead of his four-crown haul.
He sealed his latest with fifth place in Las Vegas with two rounds still to run, the hopes of McLaren’s Lando Norris formally over after Verstappen’s Brazil brilliance had effectively ended his rival’s long-slim chance of scoring a first championship in this unexpectedly interesting campaign.
But that was only one pivotal moment for Verstappen in a season that surprisingly turned around after his Red Bull squad had made such a strong start.
1. Red Bull initially retains winning ways from 2023, while McLaren starts behind Ferrari
Red Bull really picked up when it left off with its total domination of 2023 when the current campaign kicked off back in Bahrain.
But a testing brake fire and drive outage for Sergio Perez heralded how, of the leading teams, reliability gremlins have crept in most notably at Red Bull, given Verstappen’s later grid penalties for parts changes. And Verstappen having to back out of several moments pushing on the opening day of running suggested, with hindsight’s handy help, that a few things were really amiss. But as Verstappen had finished that running with the biggest first-day-of-testing gap at the front in 11 years, it was little wonder predictions of another walkover abounded.
Come the season opener, Verstappen claimed pole even around Red Bull struggling to nail its set-up in windy conditions – again foreshadowing how things could spiral for the team later in the year. He disappeared in that race, where Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took third and fourth around severe brake problems.
This Red Bull-Ferrari leading pecking order continued through the opening rounds, which meant Sainz was the main beneficiary when Verstappen’s brakes exploded in Australia and Perez failed to win in his absence. This was after Verstappen had won in Jeddah and before he would also repeat again at Suzuka.
McLaren, meanwhile, was firmly third best of the leading teams through this phase – with Norris even slipping back into Mercedes’ clutches in Jeddah and the Silver Arrows squad showing flashes of better pace too through this part of the year. And Jeddah was a race where Piastri really shone, his better qualifying meaning Norris was left out under the first safety car to avoid a doublestack stop delay and in the (dashed) hope of another neutralisation later.
But the MCL38 not being at the RB20’s level through the early rounds meant that by the time F1 rocked up in Miami for round six, Verstappen was 25 points clear in the lead over Perez, 34 over Leclerc and a hefty 52 up on Norris.
2. Verstappen saves Imola before Ferrari continues to cost McLaren points
Norris had at least excelled while brilliantly finishing second to Verstappen in China (plus he took the season’s first sprint race pole there) with a neat one-stopper that saw off Perez. He then arrived in Miami knowing McLaren would be unleashing its first major upgrade package of the year.
These 10 developments that included a new front wing, suspension and floor transformed the orange team’s season, although its actual Miami weekend got off to an unfortunate start.
Having led SQ1 and SQ2, Norris’s softs overheated when it mattered as he pushed in SQ3 and from starting ninth was wiped out in the melee that stemmed from Lewis Hamilton lunging the Aston Martins at the sprint race start. The next day, however, he finally laid to rest the spectre of Sochi 2021 with his first GP win – strong pace on aging mediums boosting his major gain around the mid-race safety car. This meant early leader Verstappen, who damaged his floor with a chicane off, could only finish second.
At Imola next time out, Verstappen grabbing a handy tow from Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas meant he outqualified the two now rapid McLarens. He then initially gapped Norris in the first stint on the mediums before the reverse happened on the second with hards and Verstappen had to produce his best with tyres losing critical temperature. He did, though, and very well, to see off his rival by just 0.7s.
In Monaco, Ferrari’s superb bump- and kerb-riding, plus Leclerc’s street-track prowess, meant he leapt in ahead of the McLaren pair on a weekend where Verstappen hit the wall in Q3 and finished sixth. Piastri led Sainz and Norris home in the ensuing procession, while Leclerc finally ended his Monaco curse.
But, critically for the title battle later in the year, Leclerc kept anyone else from scoring big on the first occasion Verstappen himself let points slip this term.
3. Mounting misfortune costs Norris the chance to close the early gap
Arriving in Montreal, Verstappen’s lead over Leclerc was 31 points, with Norris now a further 25 adrift. But a disastrous weekend for Ferrari in Canada (where Leclerc retired with an engine problem) narrowed the gap between Verstappen’s chasers.
But McLaren actually had a chance to snare another win in this wet and wild contest.
Norris stormed back from running well behind early leader Russell to run first before Logan Sargeant’s crash meant safety car misfortune for the McLaren driver this time. Then, post-restart, staying out an extra lap when it came to taking slicks aided Verstappen’s rise to a sixth 2024 win. The Red Bull driver would score seven from the first 10.
Next time out in Spain, Ferrari introducing a floor upgrade that led to its competitiveness nosediving meant the fight finally boiled down to a Verstappen-Norris battle.
The latter claiming pole with a long run down to the race’s first corner meant the first chance to see if he’d make good on his vow from 2023 to fight Verstappen harder with a title-challenging car. Norris indeed squeezed his friend hard towards the pitwall but was undone by Russell’s charge on the outside line and fell to third. Norris battled back and finished just adrift of Verstappen once again.
Two weeks later, McLaren blew a home race it had led 1-2, mainly by fitting Norris with softs at the final pitstops when he had better mediums available, while he didn’t help matters by going long on his marks at that final service. Verstappen, meanwhile, rescued second with a fine drive in the drying later stages behind sensational home winner Hamilton to bring his points lead up to 84 at the campaign’s halfway point.
4. Verstappen's mid-season penalties don't come with points cost
Either side of Silverstone were two races where Verstappen cost himself more points.
This was how, after he’d been brilliant in repassing Norris to win the Austria sprint race, where Piastri nipped by for good measure in Verstappen’s wake, the world champion was back in the spotlight for his aggressive racing tactics. And he was again in Hungary at July’s end.
In the Austrian GP, a slow second pitstop for Verstappen allowed Norris to make a late fight of it and, while he wasn’t innocent with his first attack at Turn 3 from too far back and with much track -limits abuse, Verstappen’s aggressive squeeze caused their crash. This was effectively race ending for Norris, but the Red Bull was able recover to finish fifth and claim 10 points, even with a 10s penalty for causing the collision.
In Hungary, Verstappen was effectively penalised for overtaking Norris off the track at the start, but avoided a sanction when Red Bull told him to give the place back. Then, on a Budapest weekend where he reacted with fury to Red Bull’s major downforce-boosting reprofiling of the RB20 still not being enough to get back to being the quickest car around McLaren’s competitiveness surge, Verstappen crashed while attacking Hamilton late on.
But he was nevertheless able to escape from his airborne shunt after hitting the Mercedes and finish fifth again to rescue 10 more points. It stands to reason that a less durable machine or the circumstances of his landing being slightly different might’ve meant being out on the spot…
5. McLaren's team order sagas boost Verstappen with further breathing room
Hungary also mattered to Verstappen’s march to this title in a way outside his control.
This was how McLaren got itself into a team orders tangle in the aftermath of the divisive start – where polesitter Norris had been caught between Verstappen’s outside attack and Piastri piling down the inside of the other MCL38.
Norris then got handed the lead back when brought in first for McLaren’s second services after Verstappen had been undercut by Hamilton at the first round, with Norris having been a chunk back from Piastri before the second pitstop sequence kicked off.
McLaren, which had been wary of Hamilton’s pace in Mercedes' mid-season purple patch, ended up having to plead with Norris – via race engineer Will Joseph – for him to hand Piastri the lead back.
When Norris eventually did so, Piastri went on to score his first career GP victory. But the less ruthless call meant Norris also failed to take back eight points on Verstappen. Although he still closed the gap to 76 around his rival’s latest Hamilton clash, it could’ve been a larger reduction.
The other side of the summer break, another Piastri lap one attack also cost Norris dear. This was after they’d locked out the front row at Monza with the Briton on pole and leading through the opening chicane.
But Piastri’s late-braking, outside assault at the second one had Norris so sideways he also fell behind Leclerc. The Ferrari then went on to win at its home race as the lap one attack hampered McLaren’s ability to ward off the Scuderia’s one-stop strategy surprise.
6. Norris fails to capitalise on Verstappen’s grid penalty at Spa around Mercedes’ revival
Red Bull had known since his engine electrics drama in FP2 in Canada that Verstappen would need to take an extra power unit and for the third year in a row opted for him to endure the resulting grid penalty at Spa, knowing overtaking is easier there. In reality, even with DRS, this would prove tricky.
But the engine change saga meant a clear victory shot for Verstappen was gone through no fault of his own, as here he topped qualifying by a massive 0.6s before having to line up 11th on the grid thanks to the drop. But Norris could only qualify fifth as cars that stopped to change to fresh inters found time late in Q3 and he didn’t.
Then in the race, Verstappen made yet another quick charge up the order at what is another home race, while Norris was made to pay for a Turn 1 exit gravelstrike that cost him three places.
When he then botched a pass on Sainz ahead, Norris was trapped behind the Ferrari in the first stint and Verstappen undercut ahead at the sole round of pitstops. Norris pressured his rival to the finish with younger tyres but couldn’t mount an attack and so the gap between them sat at 78 points as the summer break commenced.
7. Baku Q1 yellow flag drama thwarts Norris on Verstappen’s weakest weekend
After the summer break, Norris’s Zandvoort domination and Red Bull’s Monza nadir on its development and set-up misunderstanding of the RB20 meant Verstappen was really under the cosh as F1 headed to Baku for the latest slot in the race’s history, in mid-September.
Here, Verstappen and his crew made a critical set-up mistake that led to confidence-sapping rear bouncing and too much oversteer in qualifying on what was his weakest overall weekend of 2024 so far. Perez led him in Q3 and then Verstappen struggled with his car now lacking bite in various corner types and still bouncing badly on his way to fifth in the race.
He was beaten there by Norris, but only by one place on a weekend where Piastri won – in large part thanks to the team’s ‘mini-DRS’ system that provided a handy top speed boost before it was agreed McLaren had to make alterations to its skinniest rear wing package for the rest of the year (only really impacting its Vegas wing choice).
Norris was three places behind his team-mate because he’d started down in 15th – dumped out in Q1 when on a lap that would’ve had him through and in pole contention. He was undone by a marshal reacting to Esteban Ocon’s damaged Alpine traversing Baku’s blind series of late high-speed kinks as Norris roared up behind and briefly activating a yellow flag.
Norris lifted but it wrecked his lap and left him on a race recovery charge. He pulled this off brilliantly, even delaying Perez midway through while on the contra-strategy, which was so critical to Piastri’s win.
But Norris’s pace only served to highlight how once again a chance to take back big points on Verstappen had gone begging.
8. Verstappen finally returns to winning ways around Norris’s Austin “momentum killer” penalty
Norris’s superb Singapore win a week on from Baku meant the gap between the title rivals closed to 52 points as F1 entered an autumn break of four weeks before heading to Austin for the start of another triple-header run.
Here, both McLaren and Red Bull unleashed a series of small-scale but performance pivotal upgrades – with the latter seemingly particularly improved on overall balance for Verstappen.
He duly took the sprint race pole and then scored his first win of any kind since Spain with victory in the first race, where Norris was overhauled by Sainz late on with knackered mediums.
In GP qualifying, Norris topped the session as Russell’s late Q3 crash spoiled what was looking like another Verstappen pole run. The main race was then one of controversy from the off, as Verstappen steamed into the small gap Norris had left on the inside of Turn 1 and shoved his rival off-track. This put Leclerc – revived ever since Ferrari had overturned its Barcelona upgrade backfiring – into a lead he would never really lose.
Come the race’s end, with Verstappen struggling on tyres over the longer GP distance and with McLaren having given its drivers a rubber-life offset advantage on the unexpected one-stopper, Norris was back on the offensive.
He came close elsewhere before mounting a DRS outside-line attack at the end of the circuit’s long back straight as the closing stages commenced, which ended with both drivers off-track. Verstappen had deployed his perfected tactic of racing to the apex despite being the nominal defender, a la Brazil 2021 (albeit at lower speed).
Norris completed his overtake in the runoff, despite having nowhere else to go given Verstappen’s effort on the inside. The McLaren driver was slapped with a five-second penalty that dropped him to fourth and behind Verstappen and the dominant Ferrari drivers – a decision he called a “momentum killer”, as Verstappen left Texas with the advantage inflated back to 57 points.
9. Verstappen delivers Interlagos magic to snap Norris’s hopes
McLaren had left Baku with its team orders headache finally solved, but the topic wouldn’t rear its head again until the Interlagos sprint race – after Verstappen had been penalised twice for forcing Norris off in Mexico, where the McLaren had the pace to win but could only recover to split the Ferraris, Sainz winning on that occasion.
In the first Brazil contest, Piastri started on pole after tiny errors in SQ3 meant previous pacesetter Norris was suddenly beatable. In the shorter race, Piastri led the early stages, with Norris chased by Leclerc and a swarming Verstappen.
He finally passed the Ferrari and was getting back towards striking distance on Norris when McLaren eventually told Piastri to let his team-mate by. Controversially, this was just moments before a virtual safety car activation was called for Hulkenberg’s stranded Haas.
The next day, things got worse for Verstappen when he was dumped out in Q2 thanks to Red Bull’s run plan going awry around the crashes of Sainz and Lance Stroll in the wet weather, plus Verstappen’s lack of improvement after the first of these red flags.
His grid penalty for having to fit a sixth internal combustion engine element of the year after a problem with his practice engine the previous week in Mexico compounded the result and left him starting 17th (15th in reality with Stroll and Alex Albon absent on the grid).
But Verstappen produced a drive for the ages to win from there – making dive after dive at the top of the Senna S on his rapid rise. Ahead, polesitter Norris got jumped by Russell when the race finally got going and, although Norris eventually passed the Mercedes, the pair’s critical pre-red-flag pitstops meant Verstappen and the Alpines jumped ahead.
Norris then went off while Verstappen completed his victory storm and so they left Interlagos separated by 62 points. Another coronation was finally in clear sight for the Dutchman.
10. Verstappen seals fourth F1 title with sensible run in Vegas
The Las Vegas weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts for Red Bull when it became clear its rear wing package – like at Monza – wasn’t slippery enough to provide a clear edge. But Verstappen and his RB20 improved as the weekend went on, while at McLaren, Norris was having an even worse time. Mercedes, meanwhile, surprised even itself in stealing to the front.
Russell would dominate the second F1 race back in Sin City, but at one point Verstappen looked like he would end up being his closest challenger thanks to a neat rise up the order on the mediums most of the pack had started on, after he’d qualified fifth. Verstappen made his first pitstop from second, but in switching to the hards for the next two stints things were tougher.
Hamilton and the two Ferraris got by, with Verstappen instructed to think of his main aim for the day – securing the title – by engineer GianPiero Lambiase in those battles. But he was already in championship-sealing mode with Norris a long way off the leading pace. A no-nonsense fifth was enough to take the crown and put Verstappen level with Vettel and Prost in title terms. Only Fangio, Schumacher and Hamilton now remain ahead.
