Red Bull insists Max Verstappen ‘never panicked’ during INCREDIBLY tough 2024 F1 season

Max Verstappen singlehandedly carried the Milton-Keynes-based Red Bull Formula 1 team during the 2024 season.

Red Bull insists Max Verstappen ‘never panicked’ during INCREDIBLY tough 2024 F1 season

Christian Horner and Max Verstappen (Via: Imago)

Red Bull went through an extremely tough 2024 Formula 1 season. Max Verstappen amassed the driver’s world championship but the Milton-Keynes-based outfit was not able to keep hold of the constructor’s world title because of the challenger issues.

In light of this, team boss Christian Horner has showered praise on Max Verstappen. The latter singlehandedly carried the outfit during the season when Sergio Perez had an incredibly tough outing in the other RB20.

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Horner has insisted that Verstappen did not succumb under the pressure.

Max never panicked. Even on the difficult days, he rolled up his sleeves during the long hours with the engineers and went for it. Max has been incredibly impressive this year. He inspired from the car for the direction we needed to go in to tackle some of the problems.

Christian Horner via Formule1.nl

Looking at the reaction of Horner, it is quite clear that he is very impressed with Verstappen’s on-track as well off-track exploits in the 2024 season. The 27-year-old amassed his fourth consecutive driver’s world championship by amassing 437 points alongside nine Grand Prix wins.

Red Bull’s challenger woes made the outfit very ‘restrictive’

While Horner has praised Verstappen, he has also emphasized how other teams put pressure on them in the 2024 season. The lights of Mercedes, Ferrari and the 2024 constructors’ champions McLaren, all amassed quite a few victories.

Max Verstappen
Red Bull’s RB20 F1 car (via IMAGO)

It almost felt like something changed drastically. Suddenly three other teams became competitive and we had problems that became very restrictive. Then it was a case of, and then your tools don’t match what’s happening on track. And then the driver really plays a key role.

Christian Horner via the same interview

The 2025 F1 season is expected to be insanely competitive among the top teams. The Woking-based McLaren has been on a high and the lights of Ferrari and the Toto Wolff-led Mercedes are also expected to bring out their absolute A-game.

From the Milton-Keynes-based Red Bull’s point of view, it will be important for them to hit the ground running straight away from the Australian GP onwards (Round 1 of 2025). Otherwise, they could even slip to fourth in the standings by the end of the season. Keeping in view everything that has been discussed, next year’s campaign will be extremely fascinating for a variety of reasons.