The 2024 Formula One season for Max Verstappen wasn’t as straightforward as some of his past ones, where he cruised to the championship with ease. However, despite all that, the Red Bull star made history, bagging his fourth title and joining the elite class of four-time champions, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.

With McLaren drivers pulling consistent performances, it was becoming a challenge for Red Bull to be a regular on the podium. Yet the Dutch driver managed to win 9 out of the 24 races, including the impressive Brazil run. Where he started from 17th, drove through the pack, and took the checkered flag. And if the whole season is considered, there’s no doubt he was the best driver on the grid, and unsurprisingly, all the F1 teams agree with this!

Max Verstappen was crowned the best of the best

It seemed like a usual Max Verstappen start to the season. Where the Red Bull driver won four out of the first five races. While fans were ready for another dominant season by the Dutch, problems arose for him. In the middle part, he faced an 11-race winless streak, something that was unusual for him.

And while we did not see him take the top spot, he never missed to score the crucial points which kept him ahead of his colleagues. When the Las Vegas Grand Prix ended with still two races left in the season, he had enough points to take the championship. On the other hand, his teammate Sergio Perez struggled in the other Red Bull car, finishing 8th in the driver’s standings. So Verstappen had to single-handedly keep fighting for the constructors’ championship as well.

Even though it did not prove to be enough, as McLaren took it in the end, Max Verstappen showed why is he considered one of the greatest of all time. In fact, recently all team bosses in F1 agreed that Verstappen was the best F1 driver of 2024.

For seven years now, after the season is over, the team principals of all the teams conduct a poll ranking the top 10 drivers according to them. The point system is similar to how it is in a race. The first-place finisher gets 25 points, and the tenth gets a single point. This was the first time a driver got a perfect score! All 10 principals voted Verstappen as the best on the grid this year. Behind him, Lando Norris got 178 points, and Charles Leclerc with 121 points wrapped up the top 3.

And while not everyone would agree with Verstappen being the best this season, if you consider that Red Bull did not have the fastest car this year, the ranking makes sense. And on this Red Bull’s principal, Christian Horner had special praise for his driver.

Christian Horner on Verstappen’s growth

Horner singing praise for Verstappen is nothing out of the blue, but one cannot really disagree with him this time. According to him, Verstappen is in a class of his own now. Speaking on the talkSport channel, he said, “I think he joins that group now. I think he really is one of the greats. When you talk about, I mean, the company that he is now with like Prost, he has now exceeded what Ayrton Senna achieved. There are very few that have gone on to achieve more… Schumacher, Hamilton, and obviously Fangio.”

Starting the 2025 season, Verstappen will be en route to come closer to Hamilton’s record. But it wouldn’t be that easy with Hamilton in Ferrari next year and McLaren in top form. Yet if he pulls something like the 2024 season, he’d become a five-time champion and join an esteemed company with five in a row. Only Michael Schumacher has won five F1 titles in a row and he did it for Ferrari between 2000 and 2004.

Like Horner said, “I think this year was arguably his strongest year because we didn’t have the strongest car this year for, certainly, elements of the season – we were a little bit on the back foot, and he’s delivered incredibly consistently and really punched above his weight. So yeah, an incredible season from him.” Horner feels that despite his dominant drives over the last two years when he broke the wins record consecutive times with 15 wins in 22′ and 19 wins in 23′, this was still his most impressive championship.

According to Horner, Verstappen still being in contention in the season when “McLaren started to get performance on their car, then, Ferrari and Mercedes.” was impressive. “It was a tough few summer months for us as, suddenly, the developments that we were bringing to the car weren’t adding the performance that we wanted, and Max was having to drive the wheels off it to keep himself in contention and in control of that championship,” Horner added.

Hopefully, he can do the same next season. What do you think? Is a fifth title coming? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.