Max Verstappen stumbles across the finish line in new F1 2024 points prediction

Max Verstappen will hold on to be crowned the F1 2024 World Champion despite not scoring the most points in the second half of the season.

That is the prediction of F1 press conference host Tom Clarkson, who believes Verstappen ‘s title defence will be aided by McLaren and Mercedes “taking points off each other.”

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Having produced the most dominant season in history last year, winning all but one race as Verstappen eased to a third consecutive World Championship, Red Bull were hotly tipped to annihilate the opposition once again in F1 2024.

Yet despite starting the season with four wins from five races, Verstappen has been restricted to just three victories in the last nine in the face of a renewed threat from the likes of McLaren and Mercedes.

Despite failing to win a race since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23, Verstappen holds a 78-point lead over McLaren driver Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings.

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However, things do not look so rosy for Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, with the team nursing a 42-point advantage over McLaren with 10 races remaining.

Appearing on the F1 Nation podcast, Clarkson has predicted that Verstappen will hold on to secure a fourth title, with the re-emergence of Mercedes – winners of three of the last four races before the summer break – set to hurt Norris’s hopes of closing the gap.

Yet he has backed McLaren to push Red Bull hard in the Constructors’ title race, pointing to the performances of Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri as a clear advantage over Red Bull.

He said: “My feeling is that Max Verstappen will not score the most number of points in these last 10 races – I think that’ll be a Mercedes driver or a McLaren driver – but I think he will have done enough to win the World Championship.

“Mercedes are coming strong, McLaren are coming strong – they’re all going to be taking points off each other and that is only going to help Max Verstappen.

“He hasn’t won a race for four races yet he’s managing to extend his lead at the top of the Championship just by banging in consistent points finishes. That’s all he needs to do to win the title from here.

“I think it’s a completely different situation in the Constructors Championship, I really do believe that McLaren can win that.

“They’re only 42 points behind, they’ve got two incredibly strong drivers in Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.”

It is not uncommon for the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles to be split between different teams, with the last instance occurring in 2021 when Mercedes were crowned teams’ champions for a record-extending eighth time as Verstappen collected his first Drivers’ crown.

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