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Two-time world champion Max Verstappen revealed his best and worst races of the 2022 F1 season. The Dutchman hailed his victory at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium as his best victory in 2022, while claiming that his poor finish at Interlagos in Brazil was his worst of the year.
In an exclusive with RacingNews365, Verstappen reckoned he could have won at Spa even if he had started last, saying:
"Spa I would say. The car was very good, but also I think everything just clicked. Sometimes you have these weekends where everything just feels amazing. I think even if we would have started last for that race, we would have still won it! That's how competitive we were."
Speaking about his worst race of the season, Max Verstappen said:
"In terms of general overall performance, [Brazil is] probably on par with Melbourne, we were also pretty bad there."
2022 was Verstappen and Red Bull's year. The 25-year-old broke Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel's record for the most number of race wins in a single season - with 15 - destroying the rest of the field after the midway point of the season.
While his Red Bull RB18 did suffer poor reliability at the start of the season, the Austrian team managed to iron out any mechanical issues and gave the Dutchman arguably the best car on the grid. Max Verstappen's win at Spa was perhaps his most dominant victory to date and saw him plow through the field, winning the race by a comfortable margin despite having started P14.
Max Verstappen's dominance didn't make the 2022 F1 season boring, claims McLaren boss
McLaren boss Zak Brown claimed the 2022 F1 season was not 'boring' despite Max Verstappen's utter dominance. The American felt all races were exciting despite Red Bull's clear advantage over the rest of the field in the second half of 2022.
Brown told the media:
“It certainly seems like the racing has been better. I think everyone was concerned that cars were going to look the same. They certainly don't. There's a lot of different concepts. I think the new regulations always need refining, but I think we got it pretty right. And the racing has been very exciting this year. Given the dominance of Max, it doesn't feel like it's been a boring season, even if the results on paper, you would think it would be boring. But I think all the races have been very exciting.”
Max Verstappen secured his second title in the sport with four races to go, assertively putting an end to Ferrari's return to form at the beginning of the year. Despite the Red Bull driver's record-breaking performance in 2022, Zak Brown claims the season was not boring. He felt the 2022 regulations allowed for closer racing in the midfield, leading to exciting battles around the grid.
The Dutchman now has his eyes on his 2023 title defense, where he will be trying to stop the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes from taking away his precious accolade. Verstappen's 2023 title defense seems to be in question not because of his skills, but rather due to Red Bull's reprimands for allegedly breaching the 2021 cost cap. It will be interesting to see how things develop for the Dutch driver.
