Max Verstappen awarded F1 2024 title as Fernando Alonso breaks McLaren, Ferrari hearts

Fernando Alonso has predicted that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will win a fourth consecutive World Championship in F1 2024 in a blow to his former employers McLaren and Ferrari.

Having won all but one race in a dominant F1 2023 season, with 19 wins going to Verstappen alone, Red Bull had been expected to crush the opposition once again this year.

Fernando Alonso predicts Max Verstappen to beat Ferrari, McLaren to F1 2024 title

Yet despite starting the season with four wins – including three one-two finishes for Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez – from the first five races, Red Bull have stumbled over recent weeks in the face of a renewed threat from Ferrari and McLaren.

After Lando Norris claimed victory for McLaren in Miami, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc dominated from pole position in Monaco, prompting Verstappen’s father Jos to claim that Red Bull’s dominance of F1 is over.

Verstappen has proven himself up for the fight, holding off Norris to win by just 0.725 seconds at Imola before prevailing in changeable conditions at the last race in Canada.

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Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Verstappen leads Leclerc by 56 points in the Drivers’ standings with Red Bull 49 ahead of Ferrari.

Alonso has represented both McLaren and Ferrari over the course of his F1 career, spending two separate spells at McLaren either side of a five-year stay with Ferrari between 2010 and 2014.

Yet despite his links to Red Bull’s closest competitors, the two-time World Champion has tipped Verstappen to clinch a fourth consecutive title in F1 2024.

It would make Verstappen only the second driver in F1 history to win his first four World Championships in succession after Sebastian Vettel, who previously won four in a row with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013.

He told Spanish news agency Agencia EFE: “This will be Verstappen’s fourth World Championship.

“There will be more race winners – McLaren is strong, Ferrari in many races also seems to have the best car – but over the 24 races the ones who will make the least mistakes are Verstappen and Red Bull.”

Last month marked the 11th anniversary of Alonso’s last F1 victory at Barcelona, with the 42-year-old restricted to just nine podium finishes in the years since.

With Aston Martin currently struggling to hit the same heights as early F1 2023, when Alonso claimed six podiums from the first eight races, is aiming to keep his “hope high” ahead of his home race.

On his prospects for the Spanish GP, he said: “It’s difficult to assess what you can realistically do.

“I guess [I will finish] between 8th and 12th, which is our natural position this year.

“Then to come to your home grand prix, with all the fans in front of you and say you’re hoping to finish 10th, right?

“You always try to keep your hopes high – the fans’, your own and that of the team.

“So it’s normal to dream a little bit more, isn’t it? Hopefully I can have a great result.”

Alonso’s prediction of another title triumph for Verstappen come after the reigning World Champion warned last month that Red Bull’s recent experience of competing for top honours will make the team “very tough to beat” in any F1 2024 title fight.

Ferrari and McLaren remain without a World Championship of any kind since 2008, while Leclerc and Norris have claimed just seven F1 wins between them.

Verstappen, meanwhile, claimed his 50th win of the last 75 races in Canada, with the Dutchman on 60 career victories – behind only seven-time World Champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton on the all-time list – at the age of just 26.

Verstappen told media including PlanetF1.com: “Being at the front for quite a few years and as a team, the way we operate, I think it can make a difference to teams that are trying to chase that.

“We just try to stay calm and collected, we know that over the last few races teams have been catching up or have beaten us, so of course we want to try and improve as well.

“But I do think with the experience that we’ve had over the last few years, it makes us a very tough team to beat in a Championship, because we don’t make many mistakes.

“You try to always optimise everything and that [applies], I think, to life in general. You keep on learning, you keep trying to be better.

“But I think that does make us very dangerous in a championship fight.”

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