Max Verstappen just clinched his fourth straight World Championship, and fellow driver Lando Norris can’t find a single thing to criticize about the Dutch champion’s incredible run.
“He’s not put a foot wrong really the whole year,” Norris said after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where Verstappen sealed the deal. “That’s a strength of his. He has no downsides. He has no negatives.”
What’s really impressive? Verstappen hasn’t even had the fastest car since May’s Miami Grand Prix.
For most of that time, it was actually Norris’s McLaren that had the speed advantage. But while Norris struggled to make the most of his car’s potential, Verstappen kept racking up points even when he wasn’t winning races.
The gap at the top never really closed.
“When he’s had the quickest car, he dominated races,” Norris explained. “When he’s not in the quickest car, he’s still been just behind us and almost winning anyway.”
This season marked Norris’s first real shot at challenging for the title, while Verstappen’s been here before – four times now, to be exact.
“Some of it’s experience,” Norris admitted. “I think if we had a better car at the beginning of the year, we would have been fighting him a lot more. He would have been under more pressure than he’s ever been.”
The few times they did put the pressure on, Verstappen showed he wasn’t completely perfect. Both he and his Red Bull team made some mistakes.
But those slip-ups were rare. Really rare.
“His worst race was probably Budapest. He still finished fifth,” Norris pointed out. “He just gets everything out of the car every time. It’s always impressive to see.”
For a 26-year-old to dominate Formula 1 this completely? That’s something special. And even his closest rivals can’t help but admire it.
“There’s always things to learn,” Norris said, clearly taking notes on what it takes to become a champion.
