Max Verstappen has been tipped to pile more misery on Lewis Hamilton as he goes in search of a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship. This would come as a major frustration for the Brit, who is still searching for his record-breaking eighth title following the controversial ending to the 2021 title fight.
Verstappen’s exceptional second half of the 2022 campaign was followed up in record-breaking fashion in 2023. Blessed with the engineering masterclass that was the RB19, the Dutchman won 19 out of a possible 22 Grands Prix as he won the World Championship by a commanding 290 points ahead of his team-mate.
The Red Bull star is now a three-time world champion and moved into third place on the all-time Grand Prix victory list with 54, behind only Michael Schumacher with 91 wins and his rival Hamilton, who holds the current record with 103. Better still for Verstappen, his team are well positioned to consolidate their dominant 2023 campaign in 2024.
In a survey of 4,433 Express Sport readers, 64 per cent believed that Verstappen will follow up his sensational 2023 campaign with another Drivers’ Championship triumph. 36 per cent believed that it will be a different man holding the trophy aloft come the FIA prize gala at the end of 2024.
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Hamilton’s second-ever winless season was a frustrating one for the Mercedes star, who finished P3 in the standings behind Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. Despite his disappointment, he sealed the ‘best of the rest’ moniker ahead of the likes of Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris with a race to spare.
The seven-time world champion stood on the podium on six occasions but was rarely in the conversation for victory, with the only exception being at the United States Grand Prix. Hamilton finished second on the road in Austin by a margin of 2.2 seconds but was later disqualified due to a technical infringement.
Mercedes’ star driver is expected to be among the leading contenders to battle Verstappen for the title should his team provide him with the necessary machinery, alongside the likes of Norris and Leclerc.
Verstappen isn’t taking the threat of his rivals lightly, stating: “I think it’s not always about trying to win 20 races, it’s also about just trying to find improvements within yourself and within the car. If that means actually we have improved the car and we can fight for the championship again but only win 10 races, that’s also fine.
“The competition around us has been quite up and down, one weekend it’s this team and the other week, it’s another team. So I expect next year, people are learning a lot with this new regulation as well, that naturally [the field] will be quite a bit closer.”
