Max Verstappen has had a uniquely successful Formula 1 season – and is aware of it. As a precaution, the Dutchman is baking smaller rolls for 2024.
“Realistically speaking, what we have achieved can of course hardly get better. But I think it’s not always about winning 20 races, it’s also about finding improvements in yourself, in the car. And if so “That means that if we have improved our car next year, fight for the world championship again and only win ten races, that’s okay,” said Verstappen on the sidelines of the FIA gala in Baku.
The 26-year-old clinched his third World Cup title in a record-breaking manner last season. Verstappen won 19 of 23 Grands Prix and was on the podium 21 times.
Verstappen assumes that Red Bull’s winning spree will not be repeated next year and that the pursuers will be much closer.
“It was just the case that the competition around us experienced ups and downs. One weekend it was the team, another weekend it was another team,” the world champion alluded to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. “I expect that the people on these teams will learn a lot with these new rules and that things will naturally become quite a bit tighter.”
Formula 1: Verstappen and Red Bull chasing records
Formula 1 introduced new aerodynamic regulations in the 2021 season after Verstappen’s epic World Cup showdown with record champion Lewis Hamilton. Since then, Red Bull has been miles ahead of the competition and has dominated the past two years with an almost unprecedented level of dominance.
In 2023, Verstappen won, among other things, ten races in a row, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record run from 2013. With a total of 53 victories, the Dutchman is only ahead of Hamilton (103) and Michael Schumacher (91) in the all-time list of the best. In the all-time constructors’ table, Red Bull is in sixth place with six titles behind Ferrari (15), Williams (9), Mercedes/McLaren (8) and Lotus (7).