Max Verstappen confident he would’ve won 2021 F1 title with Mercedes and 2024 with McLaren

Max Verstappen is confident he would have won this year’s F1 world championship “sooner” if he was driving for McLaren, while suggesting he'd have been world champion with Mercedes in 2021.

Verstappen clinched his fourth F1 world title at Las Vegas Grand Prix with a P5 finish, one place ahead of main rival Lando Norris.

At one point in the season, it looked unlikely that Verstappen would retain his title amid Red Bull’s poor performance.

The Dutchman’s win in Sao Paulo proved crucial to his title triumph after coming out on top after starting from 17th on the grid.

Reflecting on the last four years, Verstappen feels he would have won this year’s title if he was driving for McLaren.

Verstappen also claimed he would have taken the 2021 title driving for Mercedes - but admitted winning for Ferrari in 2022 or another team in 2023 would have been “more difficult”.

“Such things only motivate me,” Verstappen told De Telegraaf. “If people are critical and think I can only win in the best car, I will prove them wrong.

“If I don’t get credit for this now, I don’t know what else I can do.

“Whether I would have become champion in the McLaren? Yes! And a lot sooner too. In 2021, in another car, I would have taken the title too.

“In 2022 it would have become more difficult, because Ferrari was maybe a bit too fragile then. And last year? Well, that would have been a bit trickier.”

Verstappen has won four consecutive F1 titles.

The 27-year-old feels that his title win in 2023 is ‘underappreciated’ given he won 10 races in a row - 19 out of 23 overall.

“Last year, I had a dominant car, but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning 10 in a row,” he said in the FIA press conference after the race.

“Of course, our car was dominant, but it wasn’t as dominant, I think, as people thought it was.

“So that’s for sure my best season I will always look back at.  Because even in places where maybe we didn’t have the perfect set-up, we were still capable because in the race, our car was always quite strong to win races.

“But I’m also very proud of this season because for most of the season, I would say for 70 per cent of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something that I’m very proud of.”