F1 News: McLaren Chief Delivers Surprising Max Verstappen Verdict After Las Vegas GP

F1 News: McLaren boss gives surprising verdict on Max Verstappen after Las Vegas GPMcLaren team boss Andrea Stella called Max Verstappen one of the best drivers in F1 history after the German opened up a massive 63-point lead over Lando Norris in the drivers’ standings in Las Vegas and won his fourth championship title.

Stella acknowledged that McLaren is giving Red Bull tough competition this season, with McLaren currently leading the constructors’ championship. However, he praised Verstappen to have remained strong in the battle, despite a difficult season where his RB20 F1 car was prey to balance problems, a contrast that struck with the fluid navigation of the Dutch in 2023. Speaking to the media after a cold.

Race on the strip, Stella said:”Let me express my congratulations to Max Verstappen for four consecutive world championships. “I think this title confirms that Max is one of the best pilots in the history of Formula 1 and that it is almost important for him because, perhaps in the past as last year, people would have thought it is easy to win races when you have the best car, but it is never easy to win so regularly.

There are always so many reasons why things can go wrong, and I think that, already last year, they worked – driver and team – at a very high level.”He added:”This year, when he often did not have the best car, but what he could extract from the weekends in which he did not have the best equipment confirms that we are in the era of Max Verstappen lessons in recent years and he deserves what he realizes.

Stella also welcomed McLaren’s progress this season and congratulated Norris for her determination in the battle of the championship. He highlighted how the Briton has demonstrated how quickly he learns from his mistakes and can challenge for the lead if he has a strong car. He added: “If we exclude the first race of the season before the Miami upgrades, we can see that Lando is on track to be competitive with Max from a drivers’ championship point of view.

“This is one of those incredible achievements that we have to take positively at McLaren, and when I say incredible, it’s incredible when you think about where we were just 18 months ago.“At the same time, being part of this quest, I think we’ve learned a lot.

We studied like a team. We learned to win the race. In competition to win the race, you may need to adjust the approach to the race.”Certainly, we had a situation in Canada and Silverstone this season, where we could win the race, win Mon -Two, and we were trained by the team.

“If we look at how Lando has adapted to racing, even wheel to wheel with Max, I think from where he was in Austria to Austin and just a week later in Mexico, he has learned so quickly.“I am very proud of how quickly Lando absorbs information from the situations he encounters on the track and, to some extent, even off the track, to become a better and better driver.

“I’m not sure if it’s been fully recognised from the outside, but for some reason there’s more attention paid to missed opportunities than the recognition that Lando was on a very strong trajectory and that he was in good form at the time to provide McLaren with the race-winning hardware to keep up with Verstappen’s pace.”