The Max Verstappen approach needed to see off Lando Norris F1 2024 title threat

Max Verstappen has been encouraged to play the numbers game in the second half of this year’s championship to clinch his fourth World title.

With a 78-point gap, Verstappen’s lead isn’t yet completely comfortable as he is looking over his shoulder at the chasing Lando Norris. The British driver appears to have the faster car following McLaren’s recent surge in performance.

Max Verstappen will be ‘chased hard to the end’

Appearing on the F1 Nation podcast ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill conversed with host Tom Clarkson about the upcoming 10-race sprint to decide the titles.

Verstappen’s lead might be solid but, if victories continue to elude him as he comes off the back of his longest winless streak since 2020, his 78-point lead could be whittled away by Lando Norris .

Verstappen hasn’t won a race since June’s Spanish Grand Prix, and the circumstances of recent races have worked against him – as Hill pointed out the Dutch driver’s frustrations making themselves known.

“I think he’s shown slight frustration,” he said.

“He’s been quite critical of the team, and he wants to see more action because he’s starting to have to work a lot harder than he has been used to in the last couple of years.

“I think he will have to fight really hard for this championship. So whether they can come up with a little bit more pace for him on the development of the car, I’m sure they can, but he’s still going to be chased hard all the way through to the end.”

Unless Red Bull can somehow arrest its slide back into the pack to resume its position at the front, which it held for the first quarter of this season, Clarkson believes Verstappen will have to be more accepting of results that he might not be enamoured with.

“I think Max, when he comes back, has got to realise that he’s not going to win every race in the second half of this season,” he said.

“Because the competition is too close, and he’s got to bang in the percentages.

“He’s got to take the fifth places when that’s all that the car is good for, instead of trying to force something that might lead to an accident with another car or result in a spin or some issue.

“When the performance isn’t there, he’s just got to get what is available on the table.”

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Given how the most dominant F1 car in history, last year’s RB19, was beaten in Singapore last year, Clarkson believes that weekend could be a particularly trying one for Verstappen with the less competitive RB20.

“That might well be the case when we go to Singapore, of course, that circuit highlighted the deficiencies in the car last year,” he said.

“If that’s the case again this year, then he’s going to have to just turn up and get what is possible.

“Max has got to get what is possible out of each race. If he does that, he will win the world championship in my book.

“If he goes for the win every time sometimes when it’s not there and it leads to a collision with another car, then he won’t win the world championship.

“We’re going to see… I hate the M word, but the maturity word. How has being a three-time world champion and how has being a little bit older changed him as a personality?”

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