Verstappen swept to his second F1 world title in 2022, setting a brand new document with 15 wins in a single season and a brand new excessive factors tally of 454, leaving him 146 away from Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc in second place.
Though Verstappen’s dominance meant he clinched the title with 4 races to spare, the Dutchman had feared his title chances were in doubt as early because the fourth race at Imola.
This got here after he was pressured to retire in each Bahrain and Australia resulting from a gas pump downside, inflicting him to fall 46 factors – virtually two race wins – again from Leclerc within the standings.
Requested by Motorsport.com if he might establish one space the place he actually stepped up this yr, Verstappen famous the significance of scoring at each race, and recalled feeling that he couldn’t put a foot fallacious after the early DNFs.
“You already know when you need to struggle for a title, you have to rating factors mainly each race as a lot as you’ll be able to,” Verstappen stated forward of gathering the F1 world championship trophy on the FIA prize giving in Bologna final week.
“That’s why originally of the yr, it was very powerful to have these DNFs. I knew from that time onwards, I couldn’t afford any errors from my facet, in case we’d have retirements for no matter cause.
“You all the time attempt to be as clear as you could be and attempt to be as good as you’ll be able to each single weekend. That’s what I attempt to demand from myself each time I bounce into the automotive.”
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing RB18, 1st place, passes the Crimson Bull pit wall as he takes victory
Photograph by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
The style of Verstappen’s title win in 2022 reduce a stark distinction to his maiden success in 2021, which got here on the finish of an intense, year-long struggle towards Lewis Hamilton that went right down to the ultimate lap of the season.
Hamilton and Mercedes didn’t issue within the championship battle this yr, with Verstappen’s main problem coming from Leclerc and Ferrari by means of the opening half of the season.
However following the summer time break, Crimson Bull pulled clear within the improvement stakes, permitting Verstappen to win 9 of the ultimate 11 races.
Crimson Bull group principal Christian Horner felt Verstappen had “made one other step ahead as a driver” by means of 2022 following the “heavyweight bout” towards Hamilton final yr.
“He’s pushed with such maturity, with such composure this yr, and he’s delivered some large wins underneath enormous strain,” stated Horner.
“It’s solely whenever you look again on the season, and we’ve began to try this within the final week, whenever you assume again to a few of the races like Saudi or Miami or Montreal, there’s been some large moments there.
“We didn’t have the quickest automotive originally of the yr. He very a lot stored us in rivalry and simply stored pushing, and drove with phenomenal precision and tempo.
“When there was a chance there to take, he grabbed it with each palms.”