Formula 1 roars back into life for a 10-race dash to the end of the season starting with this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
You might be surprised to realise that the Dutchman, still just 26 years old, is the seventh most experienced driver on the current grid. Only Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg have made more starts.And Verstappen has used his time wisely.
Those were wildly different times. Verstappen ended that season by claiming just the 10th victory of his career. He’d never finished higher than third on the title table. He’d just claimed the most famous and impressive of his career victories, mastering an improbable one-stop strategy to beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to the flag in a showstopping finish at the Belgian Grand Prix.His car was found to be 1.5 kilograms underweight during standard post-race scrutineering and was subsequently disqualified.
The Mexican is making a mess of Red Bull Racing’s title defence, his poor performances allowing McLaren to rapidly erode what had been a hefty points advantage on the constructors table after only five rounds. While Verstappen is yet to start or finish lower than first here, in the same car Pérez hasn’t qualified higher than fifth or finished better than fourth.These are not materially different to his average statistics since this year’s Miami Grand Prix, during which time he’s performed so badly that McLaren has slashed its championship deficit to Red Bull Racing by 63 per cent, down to just 42 points.
While Norris is the established team leader, Piastri has challenged his authority with increasing frequency. The last 10 races of the season for McLaren will be all about the constructors championship, but between the drivers there’ll be a subtle arm wrestle for the right to be the presumptive title challenger next year.With just 10 rounds to go, we’re reaching the crunch point for critical decisions to be made for 2025.