Formula 1 Focus: Verstappen's brilliance in Brazil all but ends the 2024 title fight

With the Brazilian Grand Prix serving as the final race of the season a number of times over the years, many a title has been won and lost there, and it feels like that was the case again in 2024 even if there are still three rounds left of the campaign.

With more red flags than you'll find on a shady dating app and more changes in weather than some race venues get in a year, it was a breathless weekend that ultimately guaranteed that the rest of the season won't be with Max Verstappen extending his lead over Lando Norris to a near-insurmountable 64 points.

It can't always be said that the abilities of drivers rather than the strength of their cars is what determines the destination of the world championship but that will be the case this year with Norris making a number of errors to fall down the field and Verstappen producing one of the drives of his life to climb up it.

Here are my thoughts on the race.

Verstappen earns title number four

Verstappen's superior car rather than his own talent was undoubtedly the main reason he won the 2022 and 2023 titles, but even his biggest critics won't be able to say the same if/when he's crowned champion at the end of this season. 

Luck wasn't on his side at the start of the weekend in Brazil with an unfortunately timed Red Flag knocking him out of Q2 and another one securing pole position for title rival Norris. At that point, it looked like this would be the weekend that Norris closed the gap at the top of the standings and put Verstappen under more pressure than ever, but the Dutchman had other ideas.

Some of the most impressive driving of the season came from him at the start of the main race with the Red Bull going from seventeenth to seventh in just 10 laps thanks to his remarkable ability to find far more pace than the rest of the field in tricky conditions, and fortune favoured the brave after that with a Safety Car giving him an opportunity that he never looked like missing.

He made easy work of Esteban Ocon to take the lead at the restart and stormed to victory after that, being so much quicker than the rest of the field that Norris admitted that the reigning champion would have lapped him if he'd started on pole. 

It's a drive that will go down in history as one of the greatest, right up there with Verstappen's famous performance in similar conditions at the same circuit in 2016, and it made it abundantly clear that for all of his flaws, he'll be a worthy four-time world champion. 

Has Norris missed his window of opportunity?

It's a case of sink or swim in such treacherous conditions, and while his title rival swam his way to glory, Norris sunk and so too did his title hopes. It's not the end of the world for the Brit given he's just 24 years of age, but I can't help but wonder if he ever will get as big a chance to become a world champion. 

I say that partly because he's enjoyed the full support of his team in this title challenge, being the undisputed number-one driver at McLaren. However, I'm not sure he'll ever have that status again given the mercurial talent that's on the other side of the garage in the form of Oscar Piastri, who had the beating of Norris at the start of the weekend in Sao Paulo, taking pole position for the sprint race which he comfortably led until his team ordered him to let Norris through.

Things have also been made easier for Norris by the fact that Red Bull have more often than not only had one driver fighting at the front due to Sergio Perez's struggles, which surely won't be the case again after this campaign with Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto all in with a chance of taking the Mexican's seat and all likely to be quicker than him.

Most importantly, the field always tends to close up the year before major regulation changes are introduced, and if that's the case in 2025, Norris will have a weaker car relative to his competitors than he does now with history suggesting that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes will all close the gap.

I'm not saying that the three-time race-winner will never win a title by any means, but simply that he may not be in a position again where he has the strongest car on the grid, a teammate ordered to play second fiddle to him and a rival lacking assistance from a teammate of his own.

Hunting Verstappen down this season was a tall order, but the biggest challenges may be yet to come. 

Renault's Viry team get one last hurrah

One of the sadder stories of this season is the fact that Renault have chosen to stop making their own engines from 2026 onwards, bringing an end to the project based in the French town of Viry-Chatillon that has been going for 47 years against the wishes of employees who have dedicated huge portions of their lives to it. However, that does make what happened in Brazil especially meaningful.

Thanks to Alpine teammates Ocon and Pierre Gasly, two Renault-powered cars finished a race in the top three for the first time since 2018, and that achievement was made extra special by the fact that the drivers of those cars were both French and driving for the French manufacturer's works team rather than a customer team.

It's a result that could have a huge financial impact on the team with it catapulting them from ninth to sixth in the Constructors' Championship - those three places alone will be worth around €50 million. More importantly, it serves as what may be one last reward for those working on the power-unit operation in the Viry factory.

When it was announced that Renault were to stop building F1 engines, those people would have wondered if they'd ever have real reason to celebrate in F1 again given Alpine have been fighting in the lower midfield at best for most of the season and are likely to do so again in 2025, but some slices of luck and perfect drives from Ocon and Gasly ensured that they did.

So often in sport, teams and athletes will look back on a final triumph and wish they knew then that it would be their last so that they could have celebrated it and commemorated it appropriately, and being well aware that things may not get much better next year, those at the Viry factory have at least been given that gift.