In Las Vegas

F1: Verstappen world champion for the fourth time. Race to Russell

The Red Bull driver took the title two races early thanks to fifth place in the third last round of the World Championship

24 November 2024

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5' min read

Russell, Hamilton, Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen. Mercedes elusive, Verstappen champion, Ferrari still fighting for the constructors' championship. The outcome of Las Vegas, flat in its unfolding and without any twists and turns, confirms the trend and the most probable expectations that had been formulated in the three long weeks of waiting for the last round of Formula 1 in South America.

Norris was already saying this yesterday, throwing in his hands that the world championship was already lost after the first six races. Yet for a while he and many others believed it. But after Verstappen's important victory in Brazil, it was now a matter of hair-splitting. Of waiting for the first opportunity to put the nose in front in any of the following races.

And so Verstappen achieved, as you would say in football: as of today he is four times world champion, thanks 'only' to a fifth place. The wing was not OK in qualifying and throughout the weekend he was not very fast. However, he brings home an aces poker in the gambling capital: a coincidence that enhances a career to be told. With ups and downs. With a first disputed title, 'stolen' by many and endorsed by the federation. A second and a third won by force and with no little boredom for the public and the adversaries, facilitated by a single-seater infinitely superior to all the others. And a fourth where 2024 was punctuated by irregularities, scandals and even the resignation of the team's cornerstone, Adrian Newey. A fourth title that can, however, finally, inexorably be called deserved. To the detractors and opposing fans' detriment, starting with those at Ferrari who had seen Leclerc ideally turn the corner with victory at Monaco and Monza and with a good dose of podiums from the summer onwards. And of those McLaren fans who for ten races have seen Max, objectively no longer capable of standing on the top step of the podium for long, fail to win. But, accounts in hand, perfectly capable of managing an enormous advantage, built up in the spring and now consecrated with this important seal. With this race, that of the three world championships returns to being a club of five important and heavy names, all out of action for many years: Brabham, Stewart, Lauda, Piquet and Senna. The much tighter cluster of four then rises to three: Prost, Vettel and Verstappen (all alive, but only one in activity). Ahead of them, 'only' Fangio at 5 and, as is well known, Schumacher and Hamilton at 7. Max becomes a legend even if his future is uncertain, because in 2025 it remains to be seen whether he will be able to drive a truly competitive single-seater or whether it will be better for him to devote himself to something else, temporarily leaving Formula 1, as Raikkonen and Alonso had also done in the recent past.

Textbook start

Despite the low expectations of spectacle in such a 'tight' city, the desire for the Reds to take the lead over the McLarens after more favourable qualifying, materialised right from the start. Leclerc, in fact, after the start, took a bite out of Sainz and Gasly at the first corner, moving from fourth to second place. Nothing to do instead for Russell, unreachable from start to finish. The Frenchman, who once again this year was able to put the renewed Alpine stable in the spotlight, however, already in the first five laps could not keep up with Sainz. And so, too far away from the Spaniard's exhausts and the 'second' gap, unable to use the DRS to defend himself he was easy prey for Verstappen. A first opportunity for Max to put further distance between himself and Norris, given that the goal needed to celebrate today was 'only' to finish in any position in front of him, or even behind him, with a margin of no more than two points.

More overtaking, but all regular even in the back of the field: we saw a very hard Lawson on Magnussen, they touched and not without controversy went on, in the absence of technical consequences and measures. Tsunoda and Piastri were also fighting for a while, then nothing or almost nothing. Overtaking was only seen after the tyre changes.

In a race that lost the allure of novelty and turned out to be a sort of 'horse race' of the worst kind, showing all the limits of this city, lit up and overpriced and obnoxious because of the night viewing time, the tyre changes were really the most exciting and strategic moments for the whole race dynamic. In fact, the returns more or less in the middle of the traffic have for some conditioned the ability to recover previous positions.

The saddest moment of the whole evening was the retirement of Gasly who, a third of the way through the fifty laps, had to forfeit due to engine failure. The only positive note, he showed the world the supremacy of the driver over the computer, with a couple of communications that will probably be picked up by the web for a long time: at one point he shouts that his single-seater is no longer giving him power, but from the pit box they reply that everything is OK. But not even ten seconds later there was white smoke and a very low-speed return for the inevitable retirement.

Shortly afterwards, however, another skit, this time quite ridiculous, to the detriment of the Ferrari team: Sainz went back in out of necessity, having announced it over the radio, but the mechanics were not ready. And all they could do was tell him to pull straight in and come back later. It looked like a ruined race, but the Spaniard was able to put a patch on it, however, contradicting the team order to give more space to Leclerc who, at times faster, was 'exposed' to Verstappen without his team-mate thinking to help him overtake. Then, fortunately, the Monegasque was able to take a deserved position himself and finish fourth ahead of Verstappen by two seconds under the line. But with his foot out of the door, Sainz only thought of himself and not the team: pride and a desire to try and catch Hamilton.

For Ferrari, however, this third and fourth place is fine, hard to imagine better. McLaren are sixth and seventh and twelve points down. Numbers watched carefully, as every extra point can make a difference at the end of the season in terms of the Constructors' Championship. After the Nevada race, McLaren still leads the Constructor Standing at 608, but the Reds are firmly second, with a gap now reduced to 24 points. Far further back is Red Bull at 555, due to a Perez who often struggles to even break into the top ten, and Mercedes at 425.

A one-two punch that had been missing for two years

It had been since Sao Paulo in 2022 that, again with Russell and Hamilton, Mercedes had not appeared under the chequered flag with a one-two. This time, for the sixtieth time in the history of the Stuttgart manufacturer, the honour is to have seen the chequered flag waved by none other than Sylverster Stallone, at the end of an evening where it was given little consideration by the directors. But it was undoubtedly the fastest car on the track. So much so that Russell, after scoring pole position on the line in Friday's Q3, led the grand prix from the first lap, virtually undisturbed. And after a slow half-race recovery, Hamilton came up behind him. Quietly he took second position and, thanks also to his supreme tyre management skills, he too was able to interpret the race well and even seemed to be able to aspire to catch up on his team-mate. It was too much, but he showed that he still has what it takes and that he deserves the red seat he will try for the first time in a few weeks.