Verstappen’s Leadership Key for Fifth Title Amid Red Bull Struggles

Nov.27 - There may be two races left to run in 2024, but the question is already pressing - can Max Verstappen win a fifth consecutive drivers' title in 2025?

Red Bull started this season with an advantage, but team squabbles, high-profile departures and stalled car development ultimately made the Dutchman's task much more difficult.

"Max can make the difference in some races with his talent, and that is a big advantage for a team and of course for the championship," said Alain Prost, who like Verstappen is a quadruple world champion.

"So I would always put him as favourite for next season, but the other teams now know that Red Bull can be beaten," he told L'Equipe.

Indeed, it is McLaren and Ferrari, rather than Red Bull, at the top of the constructors' standings so far in 2024, while fourth-placed Mercedes finished a dominant 1-2 in Las Vegas.

"Next year will be a completely different story," Prost predicts.

"It's a bit of a special year, because it will be the last season under the current regulations. And we have already seen that the differences between the teams are getting smaller.

"Max really had to fight to win it this year, showing a lot of special things. He has so much self-confidence and so much calm. Even when he complains a bit, he delivers time and time again and gets less and less angry. He really showed that he is a true champion."

Even Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko admits that Verstappen's fourth title was because of Max as a driver rather than Red Bull as a team.

Dutch commentator Olav Mol agrees, telling Ziggo Sport: "We cannot talk about the Red Bull. We have to talk about Max in that Red Bull. That is why he is so proud of this one, because it is more about Max than about the car.

"He showed that the driver behind the wheel is much more important than we usually think."

Marko agrees that Verstappen, 27, truly blossomed in 2024.

"We have seen a new Max Verstappen," he told ORF. "A new Max Verstappen who works with the team. He positioned himself as a leader to bring the team back together.

"We have not seen anything like this in the 20 years since the team was founded, so of course it was new. It was new that we had a car that could no longer be at the front in terms of speed, but Verstappen could still be there."

Many are predicting that, despite Verstappen's contract through 2028, he could jump to another team before then. "It is difficult to find any weaknesses in him at the moment," Prost continued.

"I don't know what his future holds, but even in the way he communicates, amidst all those rumours about moving to Mercedes and the problems at Red Bull, he made a very strong impression. He is very good in all areas with no weaknesses.

"On the track he is a very tough driver, but you cannot see that as a weakness," the Frenchman insists.

Marko agrees Red Bull has a lot of work to do over the winter.

"For the fifth title, we just have to give him the right car, and then Max will do it," said the Austrian. "A car that is not as temperamental as the current one. A car that is consistently at the front."

Former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos tips Verstappen to win one more title for the team.

"It will be difficult for Christian Horner to keep Max on board," he said. "You can't expect Red Bull to suddenly have a completely different concept next year.

"Max can ask for it, but believe me - he will no longer be at Red Bull in 2026."

Doornbos thinks Verstappen will be particularly nervous about Red Bull's new in-house engine project - in collaboration with Ford - for the new 2026 regulations.

"What you'll need in 2026 is a cannon of an engine, like Lewis Hamilton had for seven years," he said. "That Mercedes wasn't the best car aerodynamically or mechanically. It was the engine. I think that's what you need in 2026.

"Maybe he'll stop next year, and then he'll be happy with five titles," Doornbos adds. "But if he goes to Mercedes and feels that he has the package to win more titles, why not seven or eight world titles and an absolute record?"

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