Has Max Verstappen peaked already?

Despite a poor stretch of form, which has resulted in one win in the last 12 races, Red Bull's Max Verstappen has secured his fourth successive F1 World Championship.

A fourth successive Formula One championship shouldn't be understated, but Verstappen hasn't been anywhere near as dominant as he was in his three previous F1 title victories.

After a dominant first ten races, has the 2024 season been the start of his demise at the summit of the sport?

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Verstappen is the premiere driver in Formula One today, winning four consecutive world championships and pipping Lando Norris to the most recent one with two races left.

His stretch over the last three years has been the best-ever scene in racing. Between the start of 2021 and the end of 2023, he won 44 of the 66 races, including a record-breaking 19 wins in 2023.

According to the Formula One website, the Dutchman and Red Bull looked invincible in 2023, winning 21 of the 22 races and Verstappen leading 1003 out of 1325 laps.

In recent months, cracks have started to show at Red Bull, and Verstappen has begun to let his lead and dominance slip at the summit of Formula One.

Since his victory in China on the 21st of April, the flying Dutchman has won four of the next 17 races, with Mercedes and McLaren being as equally competitive as the Red Bull car.

The drop in form for Verstappen and Red Bull closed the gap at the top of the Formula One standings, with Lando Norris nearly catching Verstappen before eventually winning the title.

According to Sportskeeda, Jos Verstappen, Max's dad, specified how everything has to be perfect to win one race in Formula One.

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"Yes, you see that this year, it's more challenging to make a difference with the competition closing in. Every weekend, you have to perform at 100%. Everything has to be right, from being fit to working well with your engineer. It's all about the details."

During the same interview, when asked if his son has peaked in Formula One, Jos Verstappen couldn't deny his son's best racing days may be behind him.

"That's a difficult question to answer. With experience you can improve, but can he get much better? I don't know. I think Max was ready to be a world champion at 21."

In this short amount of time, it's hard to quantify if Verstappen has peaked already. Still, as the gaps close and the other drivers attempt to reach their ceilings, it may be more difficult for the Dutchman to reach seven world championships like his competitor Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen has secured his fourth world championship, and his Red Bull team has an entire off-season to work on what went wrong and improve the car in time for the 2025 season.

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