Verstappen's Dominance Not Only Result Of Dominant Car Says Prost

F1
Sunday, 14 April 2024 at 11:27
Updated at Sunday, 14 April 2024 at 15:07
verstappen max redbull rbcp66
Many people nowadays ascribe Max Verstappen's success to his car. However, four-time World Champion Alain Prost sees this as a shame, as he believes the Dutchman "is part of the success."
Red Bull has dominated the last two seasons and was able to maintain their advantage going into 2024, scoring three 1-2 results in the first four races of the season.
The team from Milton Keynes has had the fastest car, and Max Verstappen made the most of it, winning the Drivers' Championships in 2022 and 2023 by a considerable margin.
While he already proved in 2021 that he could win a championship, even when he didn't have the fastest car, many fans nowadays attribute his success to purely having the dominant car.
Verstappen's skill, speed, and consistency sometimes get ignored, and Four-time World Champion Alain Prost sees it as a shame, as he told Sports Illustrated:

"Max is one of the best drivers today. Maybe the best, you have to accept that. If you look at the perception that people can have - he's winning because of this car, so in fact, it's not as good for himself, which is a shame because I think he's really part of the success."

The 26-year-old is clearly faster than his teammate, which is advantageous for Red Bull because the team doesn't have to care about internal conflict between the drivers.
On the other hand, many fans would like to see at least a battle between the two drivers in the fastest car, and having a number one in Red Bull prevents that from happening. Prost added:

"The big teams like Ferrari, like Mercedes, like Red Bull obviously, they are going to be more organized and have more chance to win if they have a number one driver, a favorite driver in the team. And then they concentrate on that. So it's a little bit of a shame at the moment."