Max Verstappen has been the epitome of consistency in F1 with 41 race wins in the past two and a half seasons. He has always finished in the top 10 — whenever he crossed the chequered flag for Red Bull — except once in the 2016 Belgian GP. With that in mind, Mika Hakkinen believes it would take something extraordinary for the Dutchman to lose out on the 2024 championship.
In a YouTube video for Unibet, Hakkinen said, “The drivers’ championship, something weird needs to happen to Max that he doesn’t take a world championship because he’s still leading so much.”
Since joining Red Bull for the 2016 Spanish GP, Max Verstappen has only crossed the line outside of the points for the team on ONE occasion
That was the 2016 #BelgianGP when he crossed the line in 11th place.#F1 pic.twitter.com/hRKOvZRkE4
— Autosport (@autosport) July 16, 2024
A 62-point deficit can be easily overcome in eight race weekends, given Red Bull’s current form. Additionally, so far, Lando Norris is closing the gap almost every race weekend. However, Verstappen is also keeping himself in the fight by finishing close to or ahead of the McLaren man. So, despite the faster and more superior car, the Briton’s chances of winning the driver’s title are slim.
However, the two-time F1 champion believes Verstappen would have to suffer from mechanical issues or crash out for it to happen. In that event, the McLaren man would still need to score maximum points to cover the gap.
The RB20 has lingering issues but it’s still a reliable car. This is why, the Finnish driver believes it’s still an impossible task. However, now the Woking outfit will actively back the Brit in the remaining eight races.
McLaren to prioritize Norris to steal the championship from Verstappen
Despite his two wins, Norris’ overall performance has taken a hit in the last few races. He’s not scored as many points as he could because of his consistently poor starts. However, McLaren has now decided to help and back him in the remaining eight races of the season starting from the Azerbaijan GP. Both Andrea Stella and Zak Brown revealed this development ahead of the race.
As quoted by BBC, Stella said, “We [will] bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles. Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers.”
The entire team sat together and came to an agreement that helping Norris would be in everyone’s best interest. The focus is on the constructors’ title but the Woking outfit will attempt to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.
