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Praise flows for ‘true great’ Verstappen after fourth title win
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali described Max Verstappen as “a true great” after his fourth drivers’ championship was confirmed at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen finished one place ahead of Lando Norris in Saturday’s race to secure a fourth title in a row, as he now takes an unassailable lead into the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Domenicali -- who worked with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari earlier in his career -- says the Dutchman’s achievements put him in elite company at just 27 years old.
“I want to congratulate Max on an incredible season and his fourth world title,” Domenicali said. “He is a true great of this sport and has so much more to look forward to in his impressive career. This season has been thrilling and 2025 looks set to be even closer. Congratulations Max and congratulations to all the team at Red Bull.”
Domenicali’s comments were echoed by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who said Verstappen outperformed his car in the latter stages of this season as Red Bull has become less competitive.
“He's a deserving champion,” Wolff said. “It was clear that he was one of the great ones before the year already, and now (he's) a four-time world champion.
“He dominated in the first half of the year -- domination of the driver, domination of the car -- and then in the second half of the season, domination of the driver. And absolutely, he is a worthy four-time Formula 1 world champion.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Verstappen’s level of consistency is one of his most impressive traits, securing championships both with the best car and with one that looks set to finish third in the constructors’ standings.
“I think definitely at the end of this weekend in Vegas, even as a team, we want to spend a few words on Max,” Stella said. "Let me express my congratulations to Max Verstappen – four world championships in a row and I think this title confirms that Max is one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1.
“And it's also an important one for him, because possibly in the past -- like last year -- people might have thought that it's easy to win races when you have the best car, but it's never easy to win so consistently. There’s always so many reasons why things can go wrong.
“So I think already last year they were operating -- driver and team -- at a very high level, but this year when often he didn't have the best car, what he could extract from weekends in which he didn't have the best material confirms that we are in the era of Max Verstappen in these few last years and he deserves what he is achieving.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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