Verstappen Maximized What He Had And 'Deserves To Be' Champion Says Chandhok
F1
Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok discussed why he thinks Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen deserves to be the 2024 Champion.
Although the Championship still isn't 100% decided, Max Verstappen has the Drivers' title more or less in his pocket with three Grand Prix weekends to go before the end of the season.
Compared to the previous season though, 2024 has been a much more challenging year for the Dutchman, who didn't have the dominant car since the Miami Grand Prix - sixth race weekend.
In 2023, Verstappen won 19 races; in 2024, so far, he has won "only" eight. Lando Norris has become a real threat for the 27-year-old towards the end of the season, but Verstappen kept delivering consistent performances even without the fastest car and managed to maintain his lead.
In an interview with GpBlog, Karun Chandhok suggested the 2025 Championship was decided in the first five race weekends of the season, where the Red Bull Racing driver created a comfortable point gap.
In the end, the championship for Max, the foundation, was built in the first five races. He's not had the fastest car since Miami onwards. McLaren has had the fastest car. But Max has been amazing."
The 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in which Verstappen from P17 beat Norris, who started from the pole, will also go down as one of the most critical points in the Drivers's Championship battle.
"He's really done an outstanding job to deliver the points, and keep getting the points. I think only Baku, maybe he had a weekend where he looked a little bit behind Checo [Perez] in terms of pace."
"Otherwise, he has always been maximising the potential of the car, and he deserves to be World Champion."
Although McLaren with Lando Norris had clearly the fastest car on multiple occassions, they haven't quite managed to maximize the potential and made either strategic mistakes or driver errors. Asked if Verstappen is the best ever, Chandhok replied:
"For sure, one of the all-time greats. No doubt about it. In terms of pure driving talent…we can all debate who is the greatest of all time."
"You can't ever settle that debate. But what you can say is in the history of the sport every, I would say, six or seven years there's a very special talent who comes along. And there's no doubt Max is one of those very, very special talents."
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