F1 Q&A: Norris and Tsunoda incident, Hamilton, Verstappen, Red Bull and overtaking
Where is the 2025 performance of Max Verstappen, who is among the pilots with the most wins in a season without winning the championship, along with Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Alain Prost and Lewis Hamilton, in terms of the seasons in which he did not win the championship? -Area
Any topic like this will always be subjective.
There are numerous examples of drivers who arguably should have won the championship on merit but did not.
Stirling Moss in 1958, Niki Lauda in 1976, Gilles Villeneuve in 1979, Ayrton Senna in 1989 and Lewis Hamilton in 2007 are just some of the years to be discussed.
Probably the best example of this was Fernando Alonso in 2012; He showed remarkable consistency and excellence that season, keeping Ferrari, the fourth-fastest car on average, in the championship fight until the last race.
He lost to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. However, he could have easily become a champion if only one of the two incidents for which he was completely innocent had not happened.
He was taken out by Romain Grosjean’s flipped Lotus at the Belgian start, and had a flat tire at the first corner in Japan by fellow Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.
There is no doubt about Verstappen’s excellence this season. How his season compared to Alonso’s is up for debate, but his Red Bull was certainly more competitive than Ferrari.
Verstappen said he had “no regrets” about the season he had.
“I hated this car at times, but I loved it at times. I always tried to get the best out of it, even on the difficult weekends we had,” he said in Abu Dhabi.
“Fortunately, I would say the last eight, nine rounds have been much more enjoyable overall. We also have a great atmosphere in the team. We’re on a really good run; positive energy, belief, self-confidence, and that’s exactly what you want next year.”
“Of course I’m embarrassed to miss out on the championship, but at the same time, for a long time I wasn’t even thinking about the championship. I didn’t feel like I was in it until a few rounds ago. It’s pretty crazy.”
“You take pride in different ways. I’m happy with myself and I’m not in a position to worry about my skills or anything like that going into next year.”
