In 2024, Max Verstappen is the overwhelming favorite to win a fourth-world title in Formula 1. Who is most likely to take on the Red Bull driver?
Following Max Verstappen’s statistically greatest Formula One season of all time in 2023, many fans believe the 2024 season will be more of a coronation than a competition, as the three-time reigning world champion attempts to make it four in a row.
Quite simply, he has won more races in the last two seasons than any other driver has in any three years in the history of the sport.
Unsurprisingly, Verstappen is the clear favorite to win the 2024 world championship according to FanDuel Sportsbook, which is offering players a $150 bonus for winning a $5 wager.
Verstappen is priced at -380, which means that if the 26-year-old Dutchman wins his fourth championship this year, you would need to wager $380 to win $100.
But while teams look to confront Verstappen and Red Bull after their historically dominant 2023 campaign, there are still a lot of questions about the 2024 campaign.
Which drivers are most likely to unseat Verstappen? Based on the odds, these are the top three.
McLaren’s Lando Norris: +900
Despite appearing to be among the weakest teams on the grid at the beginning of the 2023 season, McLaren made significant progress and emerged as the clear second-place team behind Red Bull. Taking advantage of the situation, Lando Norris finished six races in second place overall.
For a long time, people believed that Norris could win the world championship with the correct gear. Can he, however, stand up against Verstappen? Including seven last year, he has 13 podium finishes in his career. Conversely, Verstappen has won 20 games in a season. Norris still needs to put in additional work because Red Bull did not win the constructor title.
Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton: +1000
Other than Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton is the most recent world champion. He almost defeated Verstappen in 2021 to become the first eight-time Formula 1 champion. After losing in 2022 to his new teammate George Russell, he had a successful season in 2023.
However, after two consecutive seasons without a victory, Hamilton has already decided to join Ferrari for the 2025 season, which may not give much hope for his championship hopes with Mercedes in 2024.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc: +1800
After leading the standings through the first five races of the 2022 season, Charles Leclerc stands as the most recent world championship leader not named Max Verstappen. Because of his quick start two years prior, Leclerc was the betting favorite to win the championship. However, Verstappen has finished first in each of the last 39 races, taking home 31 victories.
After finishing strongly in 2023 and regularly outperforming Mercedes, Ferrari does appear to be on the upswing going into the 2024 season. However, the Tifosi have gotten used to it being “their year” and are frustrated by their repeated failures to win.
The three drivers who are thought to have the best chance of challenging Verstappen have not won a race together since July 2022 (Leclerc in Austria), with Leclerc having recently secured a multi-year contract extension. In 33 races since then, Verstappen has won 28 of them.