Verstappen clinched his fourth successive world title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday, two races from the end of a season during which Red Bull – constructors’ champions for the past two years – have been usurped as the grid’s fastest team, with McLaren and Ferrari moving ahead in the standings.
Verstappen’s eight race wins this year are still five more than any other driver, although only one of those came in the last 12 races.
He said after clinching the crown on Sunday that he was “very proud” of retaining the championship as “for 70 per cent of the season we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead”.
That fact was seemingly on Verstappen’s mind when Zak Brown, McLaren’s chief executive, stopped to congratulate the Dutchman on his title win midway through an interview with Sky Sports F1 after Sunday’s race.
As they shared a warm exchange, Verstappen playfully said, “like you said, before I could only win it in the fastest car. This year has been a little bit different!”, in apparent reference to comments made by Brown in an interview earlier this year.
And speaking later on to Dutch media as his title celebrations continued, Verstappen was quoted by De Telegraaf as saying: “Things like that only motivate me. If people are critical and think that I can only win in the best car, then I prove the opposite.
“If I don’t get credit for this now, then I don’t know what else I can do.
“Would I have become champion in the McLaren? Yes! And much earlier too.”
In his cheeky exchange with Brown, Verstappen appeared to be reminding the McLaren chief of remarks the American made in an interview on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast back in May when the Dutchman was still dominating the early phase of the season.
Asked if he would rather have a star car designer or a star driver, Brown said: “Well, ultimately you need both. I don’t think without a star driver you’re going to win, so you need both.
“First it does start with the car. People ask me all the time ‘is it car or driver?’ and it’s like ‘well, it’s both’.
“But the way I characterise it is I think there are six, seven drivers on the grid that would be world champions in the Red Bull.
“As great as Max is, and he’s one of the best ever, I don’t think Max wins the world championship today in any other car other than the Red Bull.
“But then when you look at Sergio Perez, who is an excellent racing driver who has shown on his day he can run with Max, look at the difference there.
“So I think you need both because as Formula 1 gets closer, and Max is doing such a special job, but look at what’s going on from P2, P3, P4, P5, one day we’re P2, next day we’re P5, and it’s all moving around. So the cars are so close that that’s when the driver’s going to make the difference, so you need both at the end of the day.”
