Why Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, now a two-time Formula 1 World Champion, is the big winner of the 2022 season even without a big party
Dear readers,
Max Verstappen must have had an excellent night’s sleep after the 2022 Japan Grand Prix in Suzuka. And no wonder: the big party was cancelled – it was straight home after the race for the now two-time Formula 1 World Champion.
And so welcome to this Monday column, which can usually be read on our sister portal Motorsport.com, but which leaves its “home” once a year – when there is a new champion in Formula 1. And there is, even though Verstappen himself and his Red Bull team did not even know at first that the world championship decision had been made.
The start of the season is determined by Leclerc in the Ferrari
The latter remains a curious side note in a season in which Verstappen, though not from the start, has on balance been very consistent in his pursuit of a successful title defence. For we remember: Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari had the best start to the year! Red Bull, on the other hand, had a lot of bad luck in the first races.
After the Australian Grand Prix, for example, the third race, Verstappen was already 46 points behind in the overall standings with 25 points of his own for the victory in Saudi Arabia. Three races later, however, he was at the top of the Formula One drivers’ standings for the first time this year. And he has not relinquished this lead since.
The statistics to match: twelve wins from 18 races so far. If you subtract the two retirements in Bahrain and Australia, Verstappen has therefore only failed to win four times when he was at the finish: he finished second in Spielberg, third in Monaco, and seventh in Silverstone and Singapore after difficulties in both races. On five occasions he took the bonus point for the fastest lap.
When exactly the 2022 season was decided
That he would win the 2022 World Championship title was therefore already indicated some time ago. The only question was when it would happen. Yesterday, the answer was Suzuka, the place where many dramatic world championship decisions have been made.
Suzuka was also dramatic this year, but not because of the World Championship decision, but for other reasons. And the 2022 season was decided long before that.
The big turning point? Perhaps the French Grand Prix. That’s when Charles Leclerc and Ferrari failed to capitalise on their (regained) strength. Leclerc sank a possible victory in the barriers at Le Castellet, just as Ferrari had lost other possible victories in Barcelona and Baku due to technical defects. And with that, the World Championship was practically over.
Verstappen benefits from Ferrari’s inability
It was over because Ferrari didn’t manage to score well enough on their own. But it was also run because the combination of Verstappen and the Red Bull RB18 simply couldn’t be bent.
At the beginning of the 2022 season, it looked as if Sergio Perez might be able to cope with the new generation of cars a little better than his team-mate Verstappen, but Verstappen has so consistently disproved this theory, with victories on the line and an outstanding consistency that ultimately shattered Ferrari’s title hopes.
But a big factor here was also the technical development: Red Bull soon had its initial problems under control. Ferrari, on the other hand, stumbled from one mishap to the next at the beginning of the European season, lost its way several times with the strategy and was also unclear about the team-internal right of way for Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. And Verstappen said thank you.
In the end, Verstappen can’t be bent
The old and new world champion not only had a good grip on stablemate Perez, but could also rely on Adrian Newey’s engineers to consistently make the RB18 faster. When new parts came for Verstappen’s car, things usually progressed directly, and sustainably. So the winner in the 2022 development race is clearly Red Bull.
And Verstappen himself understood wonderfully how to implement this outstanding package excellently, especially in the races where the starting position was not ideal: He won in Hungary from tenth on the grid, in Belgium from 14th on the grid, in Italy from seventh on the grid. Such penalties simply left him cold. Of course, he was already on the road to victory at a time when he had already set his sights on winning the title.
Verstappen is on a par with Alonso
Now a two-time Formula One world champion, Verstappen is the eleventh driver to have managed a direct title defence – as Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso have done most recently.
And speaking of Alonso: With his victory in Suzuka, Verstappen has not only equalled the Formula 1 record holder in terms of World Championship titles, he has now won as many Grands Prix as Alonso: 32. There is no end in sight, at least not in the current season.
That’s probably why it’s not too bad for Verstappen that the big bash at Suzuka was cancelled. He will certainly have the opportunity to celebrate again at the remaining four races this year, if he continues as he has done so far. That is to be expected. And then he may not spend such a relaxed night afterwards as he did after the Japanese Grand Prix …
Agree? Contradiction? Let’s talk!
You think similarly? Or completely different? Then let’s talk about it: Feel free to follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, where I’ll be happy to discuss this column – and other topics from Formula 1 and motorsport in general – with you.
And who didn’t sleep well after the race in Suzuka? As always, you can find out in the sister column, this time written by my colleague Norman Fischer