Max Verstappen’s rivals praised his efficiency this yr after the Purple Bull driver received his fourth consecutive championship.
“I believe he has had the very best season I’ve ever seen from a driver,” stated his workforce mate Sergio Perez, who lies eighth within the championship with 251 factors lower than Verstappen. “As a result of plenty of the time we didn’t have the very best automobile and Max made the distinction plenty of weekends.
“The best way he pushed the workforce forwards, he was only a pure drive. I believe this has been the very best yr from him within the 4 we have now been collectively. He has been large, nicely accomplished to him for all of the success he has had, he deserves it.”
Purple Bull started the season strongly and Verstappen received seven of the primary 10 races. However victories turned tougher to come back by from then on: Verstappen has solely triumphed in one of many final 12 rounds.
This weekend’s race winner George Russell stated he thought Verstappen must wait till the ultimate race to clinch the title as Lando Norris closed on him over the second half of the season.
“He had a dominant automobile at first of the yr and he bought the wins when he wanted to after which genuinely thought he most likely wasn’t going to win this championship. And he delivered week in, week out, and bought the very best consequence the automobile was able to and his rivals didn’t.
“I believed it was going to go proper to the wire, and he received with [two] races to go. So enormous congrats to him.
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“We’ve simply bought to make it possible for we get ourselves in that struggle. And provides him a tougher time. As a result of it’s about time, I believe we really feel able to try to take that problem to the entrance.”
Carlos Sainz Jnr, who made his F1 debut alongside Verstappen at Purple Bull’s second workforce Toro Rosso (now RB) in 2015, stated his former workforce mate undoubtedly deserved his success.
“He’s pushed for 4 years now at an extremely excessive degree,” stated Sainz. “I believe this yr he simply dominated every time he had a dominant automobile after which he didn’t do errors and maximised the factors that he might get with a less-performing automobile and simply did no matter he needed to do in each race. And congrats as a result of he clearly deserves it.”
Verstappen’s run of 4 consecutive championships started in 2021, when he beat Lewis Hamilton to the title in controversial circumstances. The Mercedes driver stated his former championship rival had “accomplished a incredible job” this yr. “He’s not made any errors and he’s delivered each time and [taken] each level he’s speculated to.
“Him and his workforce have accomplished the very best job, once more, fourth yr in a row. It undoubtedly bought thrilling at one level. I believe they are going to be exhausting to beat subsequent yr as a result of they most likely began sooner than everybody else growing subsequent yr’s automobile as nicely. However I’m actually completely satisfied for him.”
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2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
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