Max Verstappen claimed his fourth Formula One drivers title in 2024, but it was in stark contrast to his third during last year’s campaign where he won nineteen of the twenty three Grand Prix. This year started well for the Dutch champion as he reeled off four wins in the first five weekends and only a mechanical failure in Australia prevented him from making it a clean sweep.

At Round six in Miami, a fortunately timed safety car for McLaren saw Lando Norris take the lead from Max during a pit stop, going on to claim his maiden victory ahead of the chasing Red Bull driver.  Next time out in Imola Max returned the the top of there podium having led from pole after a stunning qualifying lap.

The notoriously difficult to overtake circuiting Emilia-Romagne meant without a mistake, the win was designed for the Red Bull driver. Next up in Monaco the RB20 proved to have suspension issues with it being non-compliant over the large kerbs in the principality. Max started and finished the Grand Prix in sixth.

 

 

 

Verstappen winless run

Wins in Canada and Spain meant with the exception of Monaco, Max could have claimed nine victories in the first ten rounds of the season. The off came the wheels in Austria, literally for Lando Norris as he and Verstappen battled for lap after lap for the lead of the race. The McLaren was clearly the quicker car but feisty defending from Max proved enough to keep him ahead until they came together on lap 63 with just eight to go.

Then came a run of ten Grand prix weekends without Max claiming the ultimate prize on Sunday after, the longest winless streak since back in 2022. But Austria began the debate over Verstappen’s aggressive driving style, something which was to continue until the first corner of the final race in Abu Dhabi.

As he had done in Austin Texas, Verstappen saw a gap on the inside after lights out and went for it. He collided with Oscar Piastri who fell to the back of the field before he himself crashed into the Williams of Franco Colapinto and was handed out a ten second penalty as Max had suffered for his first corner clumsiness.

Verstappen was to receive the mandatory two penalty points on his super license for the incident, which now takes the world champion to eight out of a possible twelve. Should he reach the magic dozen he will receive an automatic race ban as happened to Kevin Magnussen at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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Mixed response from F1 drivers

The drivers expressed a mixed response to the Dane missing out in Baku, with a number of them feeling the stewarding has become more stringent this year. In commentary for Sky F1, Martin Brundle noticed this after three drivers were given lengthy time penalties during the race; “The stewards appear to being tougher on driving standards,” he said.

Verstappen’s penalties have been the subject of significant debate in the paddock and will cause a rewrite of the FIA driving standards guidelines at the start of next season. Yet in Austin Texas, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris who received a penalty when Verstappen exploited a loophole racing to the apex of the turn first. Now defined as his corner, he was allowed to run the overtaking Norris off track, for which the McLaren man was bizarrely penalised.

Red Bull then ran some counter propaganda claiming there was bias amongst certain stewards towards the British drivers and against Verstappen. This was vehemently denied by Johnny Herbert who stood accused by Red Bull of treating their driver differently from the rest of the field.

Herbert strangely went on to give his opinion on Verstappen’s driving. “When Verstappen goes into this horrible mindset of trying to gain an advantage by taking a fellow driver off the race track so Ferrari can get the one-two, that is where Verstappen needs to know he doesn’t have to do that. Just win in the cleanest possible way you can.”

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Herbert courts public opinion

Stewards do not court public opinion over their decisions and so Herbert’s attack on Verstappen was out of the ordinary. He then claimed his comments were made with his pundits hat on, not his stewarding one, yet the feeling that he “protest-eth too much,” was apparent to all. 

Now Helmet Marko has again addressed the issue of stewarding and bias, as Verstappen now sits just two penalties away from a race ban. His next two points fall away in June 2025, which means Verstappen has ten rounds to face before the risk of a ban will fade.

“He got two points again and is now on eight. We have to be careful,” Marko told Sky Deutschland. “Certain stewards give more severe punishments, but that’s a problem that everyone has and it was mentioned that more consistency would be better.”

Despite all the controversy over Verstappen’s aggressive driving style, come the start of the Mexico City race weekend his tally was just four penalty points. During the Grand Prix the stewards handed out two ten second time penalties which the champion was forced to take during his pit stop. The mandatory two penalty points took Max to six in total with four weekends remaining on the calendar.

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Max: “Not very diplomatic”

Verstappen’s response in Abu Dhabi to being told he had a time penalty reflected on Mexico, when his response to GP his engineer was broadcast. “Can we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots!” said the 63-time race winner,” joked the world champion.

Dr. Marko addressed this remark which was criticised by the Sky F1 commentary. “That wasn’t very diplomatic,” joked the 81 year old Austrian.

“It’s the emotions and at that moment you don’t think very diplomatically. Maybe you shouldn’t broadcast everything. In football, not everyone has a microphone hanging around their neck. I don’t want to know what kind of comments are being made,” concluded the Red Bull advisor.

Of course driver reactions under pressure over team radio is a feature of F1 racing which was highlighted when the FIA president demanded the drivers stop swearing. Yet the irony is F1 controls the radio messages being broadcast on the world feed, and they know a driver who rants, adds colour to what can be a processional event.

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Veteran F1 journalist: “The worry for Hamilton…”

Lewis Hamilton’s twelve year tenure with the Mercedes team is now complete. He heads for Ferrari next year in an effort to reset his stumbling F1 career. Lewis and George Russell. Entered their final race together level on points across the three years as team mates.

Yet his last lap brilliance in overtaking George Russell around the outside of turn 9 meant that Hamilton finished their time together with the most points. Only Jenson Button during the three years they were partnered at McLaren managed to outscore Hamilton along with Nico Rosberg who claimed the 2016 drivers championship.

However, this was a small victory for Lewis over George given Russell stepped up from Williams and claimed the Mercedes honours for the campaign in 2022. Again this year the younger man had the upper hand despite a 32 point swing in favour of the seven times world champion when Russell won the race in Spa-Francorchamps only to be disqualified for his car being under weight. Hamilton was promoted to the top step of the podium, making it the second race of the year where he was victorious… READ MORE