Max Verstappen Makes End of Season Predictions After First Race; Where Does Lewis Hamilton Stand?

Sabyasachi Biswas | 03/03/2024
Max Verstappen Makes End of Season Predictions After First Race; Where Does Lewis Hamilton Stand?

Moving away from his regular F1 duty, Max Verstappen recently shared his expert opinion on how the 2024 season will pan out. In an interview with Dutch media house Viaplay, the Dutchman revealed his predictions for the top three this year. While he kept himself at the top, he interestingly put Lewis Hamilton second and Charles Leclerc third.

It’s surprising to see how he did not put his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in the top three despite the Mexican driving arguably the fastest car on the grid. Apart from this, Verstappen also made multiple other predictions for this season.

He predicted that Lando Norris would win the first race of his career this year and that Visa Cash App RB would get a podium. While Norris and McLaren are hardly in a place to win races at the moment, the Dutchman seemed to have wanted one for his ‘pedal mate.’

Keeping aside Red Bull, McLaren are behind not only Ferrari but also Mercedes in terms of performance as seen in Bahrain. Therefore, one can hardly expect Norris to win a race considering the pace of the MCL38.

Since the three-time world champion put the money on him to defend his championship, he also predicted to wrap up the title battle by the 2024 Sao Paulo GP in Brazil. Nonetheless, Verstappen played a humble game with a relatively low race-win prediction.

Max Verstappen’s unique move to stay grounded

While Max Verstappen got into the game of prediction, he made a decent, and yet humble one on himself. When asked how many races he thinks he can win, the dominant Dutchman stated “12“.

Given that he won 15 races in 2022 and a staggering 19 in 2023, it is surprising to see him predict 12 since the 2024 campaign also has the highest number of races in history (24). Nevertheless, the defending champion played safe and kept his expectations significantly low, so that he could be satisfied with himself and not get carried away.

The Dutchman has already won the first race of the 2024 season this past weekend in Bahrain, and he claimed the victory in a fashion he knows best. The 26-year-old added another Grand Slam to his name as he registered pole position, the race win, the fastest lap, and also led every lap of the Grand Prix.

Moreover, he won the race by a whopping margin of 22.457 seconds from Perez. The early signs seem to suggest that Verstappen has no intention of slowing down and is as relentless as ever.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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