How Max Verstappen could be an even bigger threat this season

Talk to the bookies and they don’t expect the winner of the past four F1 Drivers’ titles to match Michael Schumacher’s fifth successive championship feat of 2004.

They don’t see Red Bull regaining the Constructors’ crown either, potentially leaving Max Verstappen without any end-of-year silverware for the first time since 2020.

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Those who know Verstappen best are not so quick to bet against him, no matter the evidence of testing in Bahrain which suggests a wide-open Drivers’ title race.

Martin Brundle makes him favourite, not least because he sees the McLaren and Ferrari pairings taking points off each other.

Bernie Collins, Sky Sports F1 strategy expert, believes the Flying Dutchman’s year can go one of two ways but insists: “Even if his car is not the fastest he will still be a force to be reckoned with.”

She told PlanetF1.com: “Max is driven by winning. As long as he is motivated he will pull out all the stops to get the most out of the car.

“But if he starts to feel disillusioned that Red Bull aren’t going to turn the car around or whatever, maybe he will struggle. Max is a racer, he just wants to win.”

It is at this point Collins introduces an intriguing thought; that the man with 53 race wins and 37 poles in 89 starts over the past four years might actually get a kick out of doing it the harder way.

“Maybe he will relish the challenge of not having the fastest car and still beating the others guys,” she said. “That’s the type of character he is.

“I’m sure he’d love it if he was able to say, ‘I have the third-fastest car and I’m still bloody winning the championship’.

“I’ve been so impressed over the years with his change of mentality. He seems to have matured a significant amount from the young Max, who was throwing away positions, having crashes and stuff, which we saw quite a lot.

“If he can turn the Red Bull around and make it fast, I think he will be driven by that.”

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Unlike with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at McLaren and Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Verstappen is undisputed number one in his team, where Liam Lawson starts his first full season in the second seat.

“The driver pairings are going to be a fascinating aspect of this year,” said Collins. “Who can manage that team dynamic best from the start of the season.

“Is there going to be a No1 driver? How are the points going to be split up? There’s so many interesting storylines. I’m excited to see can Lando do it, is Max still going to win out in the end through just true grit?”

Zak Brown, CEO of Constructors’ champions McLaren, does not shy away from the challenge of running two title contenders but insists the team are fired up by the task.

“We’ve got two shots at the Drivers’ title, it’s very exciting,” he told BBC Radio 4. “It will present its challenges at times because one is going to have to beat the other but we’re going to treat them fairly.

“We let them race. Some people were critical of us last year for letting them race as long as we did but that’s because they both had a shot at the championship.

“We want them to decide on track, in a fair way, who’s going to come out on top. I think that’s always been McLaren’s way of racing. We’re excited to have our best driver line-up in Formula One, as far as we’re concerned, for the foreseeable future.”

Piastri signed a McLaren contract extension ahead of the new season getting underway.

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