The type of F1 world champion record-breaker Verstappen has proved to be in 2022

With just two races of the 2022 Formula 1 season remaining, we know exactly how this campaign will be remembered. Unlike 2021’s thrilling to-the-wire championship fight, Max Verstappen and Red Bull have dominated.

He’s been a double world champion for three weeks already and following his supreme Austin and Mexico City double-header sweep, he’s a double record-breaker too.

Verstappen’s 14 race wins this year put him clear of those F1 legends Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel in the single-season win total, with two races left to perhaps put that accolade beyond anyone else’s reach for a generation. Plus, he’s toppled Lewis Hamilton’s single-season points total (416 and counting vs 413 from 2019) to boot.

Back in the spring, with the new ground effect cars finally revealed, Autosport wondered in our March 10 issue: what kind of champion would Verstappen be?

Among our considerations was Verstappen’s ongoing desire to succeed after securing the ultimate F1 prize, the possibility he’d lose determination as Kimi Raikkonen did post-2007. Had 2021 marked Verstappen’s performance peak already? Would he race differently – cutting out the ugly moves in attack and defence that characterised his 2021 season and replace them with something calmer?

And, perhaps most pertinently in this reflection given certain events at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez last weekend, how would he wield power as a champion?

Well, it’s clear Verstappen absolutely hasn’t lost drive and determination. That was obvious from his early 2022 fights with Charles Leclerc and could be heard in his public frustration with Red Bull’s early issues. This included his comments on the RB18’s weight-problem-induced understeer and his team radio fury regarding the DRS issues in Spain.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

He’s not calmer on his team radio even with the title wrapped up judging by his anger at the long Austin pitstop. But the dynamic created with Gianpiero Lambiase – this year of course promoted to Red Bull’s head of race engineering too – works well in any case.

The evidence suggests that Verstappen has raced Leclerc differently in 2022 compared to Hamilton last year. But the Monegasque driver and Ferrari have overall provided a less stern test compared to the Hamilton/Mercedes combination from 2021 – that clearly still has its potency, should they reverse the mistakes of the W13 package with a return to design form in 2023.

Verstappen has though showed flashes of his previous ruthlessness, early-on at Brooklands against Leclerc at Silverstone and late-on aggressively defending a lowly seventh against Mick Schumacher with a damaged car in the same race. Then there was the brief re-emergence of the haste that occasionally took over Verstappen early in his F1 career in his botched pass on Lando Norris in Singapore.

The spat between the Verstappen/Red Bull camps and Sky Sports F1 last weekend also shows how far they can reach. In choosing not to speak with the broadcaster Verstappen is acting well within his rights

But these were rare and minor moments in a brilliant, dominant display. And over the course of this season, it’s become very clear Verstappen had not hit his ultimate peak in 2021, which was unlikely anyway.

This year’s results have truly blown away the imagine of Sergio Perez as Red Bull’s tyre management star. Hamilton’s skills on this are well known and were key to his dominance over Valtteri Bottas in the final years of the previous ultra-high-downforce era. But, judging by what was witnessed in Mexico last weekend, Verstappen is on that level of mastery too.

And Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reckons his charge has in fact improved in this critical area compared to 2021.

“He’s got a tremendous feel for what the tyres need and what they don’t need,” says Horner. “It’s something he’s developed. He’s always been strong at it, but this year, he’s been exceptional.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

After the Mexico FP2 tyre test, Autosport has learned that the planned switch to heating tyre blankets to just 50°C – down from the current 70°C – is unlikely to go ahead for 2023 if F1’s stakeholders accept Pirelli’s new proposals on this element.

This is down to the tyre manufacturer discovering it can save more energy heating the tyres pre-session at 70°C for two hours rather than at 50°C over three – pivotal given the initial plan was conceived as a sustainability measure.

But, as it stands, F1’s total tyre blanket ban is still coming for 2024. This will result in two possible outcomes: either Pirelli produces all-new compounds for that year or the cars will have be adapted and likely driven differently to overcome early-stint tyre warm-up struggles given the current machines just aren’t designed to cope.

Therefore, Verstappen’s tyre whispering skills will need further evolution in the future if he’s to continue succeeding at the top level. But another element of his game has played a part in the plan to lower the tyre blanket temperatures for 2023 being re-evaluated.

This is that Verstappen was among its most vocal critics, saying in Mexico such a move would lead to “a lot of crashes”. This demonstrates his champion’s power and influence – now he heads the pack, his words matter more.

The spat between the Verstappen/Red Bull camps and Sky Sports F1 last weekend also shows how far they can reach.

In choosing not to speak with the broadcaster – and its German and Italian affiliates – Verstappen is acting well within his rights. And Red Bull was hardly going to undermine his stance.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates on the podium

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Assessing his words in the post-race press conference regarding “constant” disrespect – apparently mainly stemming from pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz – this is surely more important and concerning for those involved than a single incident of flippancy in the Austin paddock pack-down.

But boycotting media just isn’t a good look given how delicate all societies are in this awful, post-truth age. The powerful being available and willing to undergo all scrutiny is essential.

It’s always better to rise above perceived provocation. This is what Hamilton did so beautifully last weekend with his understated response to words uttered by Fernando Alonso regarding the apparent worth of the Briton’s championships compared to Verstappen’s in an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, which ignited another social media storm.

“I just live in the moment. I just try to do the best I can every single weekend. I try to win the races and that, for me, is the most important," Max Verstappen

Where Hamilton is the joint record holder of total titles, now Verstappen has those two famous accolades sealed in Mexico.

But his reaction to doing that was interesting. He’d played down equalling Schumacher and Vettel in Austin – referencing the fact F1 has more races per year now than in any previous era – and was hardly effusive in Mexico when the wins record became his alone.

This was reminiscent of an oft-used tactic many drivers deploy to avoid losing focus over the course of a campaign following a single event. That ‘onto-the-next-one’ mantra.

Perhaps he is deploying that approach again here – maybe targeting a perfect end to the campaign to avoid giving Leclerc or Hamilton useful momentum for 2023, something so important to Nico Rosberg defeating the latter a year after taking the last three victories of 2015.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Verstappen can reach 16 GP wins and 19 race victories in total in 2022, with a perfect sprint sweep if he does the double in Brazil and takes a walk off win in Abu Dhabi later this month.

But when Autosport asked if he was trying to avoid losing focus by under-celebrating breaking the wins record, he denied it. At play too could be athletes’ desire to avoid giving an opponent any edge by revealing too much of their true feelings.

“I was never really interested in stats,” he said in the post-race press conference in Mexico. “I just live in the moment. I just try to do the best I can every single weekend. I try to win the races and that, for me, is the most important.

“Every single weekend when I go home, and I can say to myself that I maximised or got close to that, I'm happy.

“But a lot in Formula 1 depends on your whole package, right? And we are having a great package and I'm just enjoying the moment. I'm not that interested in keeping in touch with every stat. But, of course, it is an amazing season and I'm very happy with winning so many races.”

Fair enough, really. We keen observers hope for unbridled joy at major achievements – it’s the emotion/action combination that makes sport so captivating. We humans live for narrative. But that’s not Verstappen’s way, at least in public.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

That’s not to say he’s some emotionless, robot champion, however. His post-Austin qualifying shock and sadness at the news of Dietrich Mateschitz’s death was clear to see to everyone in that event’s press conference room.

Then there was his charmingly genial reaction Autosport observed to fans coming up and commending his USA victory while he sat at the bar of a downtown Austin BBQ restaurant a few days later. There were just no airs or graces on display, only a relaxed and content figure.

So, as the Verstappen’s champion narrative continues to evolve – as it will for as long as he remains in F1 – the question now turns to how he continues developing as a person and driver.

His 2022 supremacy and comfort are clear. But perhaps we’ll see something else again in a closer fight the neutrals are really craving ever more after that lifeless race last weekend. Not that that was Verstappen’s fault. He just did as he does right now: win.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates on arrival in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images