Formula 1: After the hangover to Qatar: new attack on Verstappen

After the lavish World Cup party in the City of Sin, Max Verstappen doesn’t have much time to recover from his title hangover. The defeated and partly humiliated Formula 1 competition wants to use the races on Sunday in Qatar and a week later in Abu Dhabi to prepare for the attack on the now four-time world champion in the 2025 season. “Nobody is unbeatable,” emphasized Las Vegas winner George Russell from Mercedes: “I think we are ready to take on this challenge now.”

Verstappen knows that – and is looking forward to it: “It’s going to be a real battle with a lot of cars, but I’m hungry.” He was already there when he took part in his first Formula 1 race almost ten years ago in March 2015. A once (too) impetuous, greedy and aggressive young pilot became one who increasingly lived up to his reputation as a talent of the century and is now causing his challengers to fail one by one with a frightening aplomb.

Four world championship titles in a row, 62 Grand Prix victories, 40 pole positions, 111 podium places – Verstappen has long been in a row with the greatest of the greatest. “There are these phases when teams and cars and drivers seem unbeatable, but you can’t lose faith,” said Russell. It will be difficult to beat Verstappen next year, predicted Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull probably set its sights on next year’s development of the car earlier than other teams. Whether that is the case remains to be seen.

It is clear that there will be no major rule changes next year. The drastic rule reform is not due until 2026. “Then hopefully it will open up opportunities for more drivers,” said two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who is hoping for the Adrian Newey effect at the very latest. The star designer announced his departure from Red Bull this season and will work for Aston Martin in the future.

Leclerc’s freakout just a foretaste?

In all likelihood, Verstappen’s challengers will also be in the McLaren, the Ferrari and the Mercedes next year. But that’s exactly where there’s a lot of explosive material. Because it won’t be the same as it is this year.

At McLaren it is doubtful that Oscar Piastri will once again allow himself to be reduced to being an assistant to the failed Lando Norris. At Ferrari, the arrival of record world champion Hamilton will put the structure to a serious test.

How irritated his soon-to-be teammate Charles Leclerc already is was shown on Sunday. And he wished that what he said in Vegas would have stayed in Vegas. “Shit, shit, shit, and the radio is on,” he said when he noticed. With a cynical, sarcastic tirade of insults and the F-word repeatedly, he had previously complained heavily to the team because his colleague Carlos Sainz had no longer adhered to the command post’s instructions before he moved to Williams after this season.

What will be the situation next year when the still untitled and once highly rated Leclerc drives alongside the most successful driver in Formula 1 history and an absolute superstar will be one of the exciting questions. Just like Hamilton’s successor at Mercedes works alongside Russell. The Silver Arrows rely on newcomer Kimi Antonelli from Italy, who is just 18 years old. Imagine if he were to hit the ground running and put pressure on Russell, who believes he is in the leadership role after Hamilton’s departure.

Let’s continue with Verstappen’s parade discipline

From a purely sporting point of view, it will hardly matter to Verstappen who will drive next to him next year. It can hardly be weaker than Sergio Pérez this season. Whoever it is in 2025, Verstappen’s natural authority and status in the team are undisputed. All the sideshows seemed to bounce off him this year.

In what was probably the most severe and, above all, most public emergency of the racing team since its entry in 2005 with the dispute over team boss Christian Horner and a power struggle in which world champion father Jos Verstappen also got involved, Verstappen demonstrated great qualities as a crisis manager. Freed from all the burdens and the difficult and demanding title fight this year, he will be fully recovered in time when it’s all about winning again in his flagship sprint discipline in Qatar this weekend. Because Verstappen also knows: the foreplay has already begun in the fight for his fifth triumph in a row.