Former Renault team principal Flavio Briatore has admitted that he is not enjoying Max Verstappen’s ongoing domination of Formula 1. The Red Bull driver raced to a third consecutive world championship title, comfortably beating teammate Sergio Perez to the grand prize in 2023.
The 26-year-old keeps on setting records on the circuit, having followed up 15 wins in 2022 with 19 wins in 2023 to end the season with the most victories in a single campaign ever for any driver. Verstappen also ended up with over double the points of his nearest competitor in another all-encompassing showing as he secured another title.
Incredibly, a combination of the superstar’s ability and the Red Bull car’s design helped him to pick up 575 points – which equates to 92.74 per cent of those available at the start of the season. The reigning Drivers’ Championship victor is well on the path to becoming one of the all-time greats and his success looks set to continue as he is set to remain with Red Bull until 2028.
Despite his heroics over the past three years, though, his excellence appears to be a turn off for former Renault F1 chief Briatore, who appeared apathetic about the star’s triumphs when speaking to Autosprint. He said: “The Red Bull team is extremely strong and Max Verstappen is doing nothing wrong.
“He is an extraordinary driver. Max Verstappen is really one with his car, especially when we consider that Sergio Perez has the same car. You really see the difference with Verstappen, who does extraordinary things.
“Unfortunately, Max Verstappen ruined the world championship a bit,” he controversially contended. “I hope there will be more excitement next year, otherwise, it won’t be fun anymore. But Red Bull has an advantage that I think is difficult to undo at the moment.”
Verstappen will likely not be too moved by these comments, however, and the Dutch competitor could not hide his delight after he secured yet another world championship gong. He told Sky Sports: “It’s been an incredible year. Super proud of the job of the team. To be three-time world champion is just incredible.”
Naturally, his continued dominance of F1 has done his reputation no damage with Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner either. Speaking on the Sky Sports ‘F1 Podcast’, Horner has already admitted that Verstappen has ‘very little’ room for improvement as things stand.
That said, he has still set him a challenge of perfroming even better in 2024. The Red Bull Racing chief confessed: “I mean certainly, there were three races where he could have been better but that was beyond his control.
“So, I mean what an unbelievable year he’s had, he’s just been absolutely incredible so he’s impossible to fault the season that he’s had, he encouraged as he aimed to keep Verstappen hungry going into the next calendar year, adding: “Keep doing what you’re doing!”
