Max Verstappen’s stranglehold on rivals makes a third F1 title inevitable
Once criticised for being too aggressive, impetuous and prone to error, the once flawed Max Verstappen is now all but flawless. On Saturday he will almost certainly seal his third successive Formula One world championship after a season where he has seldom put a foot wrong and the opposition have been distant peripherals to one of the most authoritative title bids the sport has seen since Michael Schumacher had similarly dominant control.
Having exerted an iron stranglehold on the season, Verstappen ensured the 2023 title fight was all over bar the shouting at the last round in Japan. His coronation as a three-time world champion at the age of 26 will likely be completed in the sprint race for the Qatar Grand Prix, where he requires only three points to finish the job and conclude the team’s sixth drivers’ and constructors’ championship double.
If the season has been a little lacklustre – and it is impossible to deny at times it has been hard to be enthused as the Dutchman cantered to win after win – he cannot be blamed. Verstappen has been driving not only like a champion but one who has reached his true potential and is now exploiting it ruthlessly, a driver entirely at ease both with himself and with his car.
Indeed, the car is the class of the grid, as naysayers are eager to point out. Red Bull have, in the words of Verstappen and many others across the paddock, built a rocket ship but it is singularly Verstappen who has mastered it every time they lit the candle.
The numbers are stark. Thirteen race wins from 16 meetings, a record breaking 10-race winning streak that has contributed to a 177-point lead over his teammate, Sergio Pérez. The Mexican is in identical machinery and his failings – pushing too hard to try to match his opposite number – have only served to stand in striking contrast to Verstappen’s immaculate driving.
With the opposition Mercedes, Ferrari, latterly McLaren and Aston Martin barely in the fight from the off, Verstappen has very much been in a class of one and is now joining a truly distinguished group of drivers. A third title will match, among others, Ayrton Senna and Sir Jackie Stewart.
Even amid the fierce rivalry of the grid, fellow drivers, who know quite how hard a job it is to keep delivering with such relentless consistency, have acknowledged Verstappen’s achievement. Not least Lewis Hamilton, who would like nothing more than to have once more gone wheel to wheel with his rival.
“He has earned his position and done an amazing job with the package he has,” said Hamilton. “Him and the team have been phenomenal and faultless this year. They have raised the bar and as a team we have to look at that.
“I do hope at some stage we can fight them and have them defending but they should enjoy the moment because they have worked for it.”
That said moment should fall on a Saturday in Qatar seems a little underwhelming after such a majestic display of sporting prowess.
Verstappen has said he does not care where or in what event he wins the title as long as he wins it but few observers will enjoy a championship being decided in a 19-lap dash, likely to be a procession at another soulless enormodrome in the desert.
Doubtless on Saturday there will be fireworks aplenty at the Lusail circuit, their gaudy flashes a distraction, as surely as the event itself is sportswashing, an attempt to create atmosphere where there is none after a “race” that does not even enter F1’s grand prix statistics as such.
This was always a risk when F1 introduced the sprint race concept but one exponentially increased when they loaded the back end of the season with sprint weekends. After a season completely dominated by one driver, and which has become increasingly hard to capture attention, sealing it with the short-form damp squib will not help.
Verstappen’s brilliance deserves better, with at least the celebratory conclusion of a full grand prix. He and the team may have to wait until Sunday night to really let rip.
Verstappen opened the weekend with the form that will doubtless deliver the title, showing his brilliance in qualifying for the grand prix with a mighty lap for pole in Qatar.
The Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start in second and third after both the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had their lap times voided for exceeding track limits.
In testing conditions, as the track was rubbering in, the last laps were vital and Verstappen’s first hot run in Q3 was a commanding drive. With a time of 1min 23.778sec it was enough to seal the place and his tenth pole of the season. Qualifying for the sprint race takes place on Saturday.
Fernando Alonso was fourth for Aston Martin, Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, with Piastri dropped to sixth. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were seventh and eighth for Alpine, Valtteri Bottas ninth for Alfa Romeo and Norris tenth for McLaren.
Pérez went out in 13th all but ensuring that even if Verstappen does not seal it in the sprint he will in the race on Sunday. Yuki Tsunoda was in 11th for AlphaTauri, Carlos Sainz in 12th for Ferrari, Alex Albon 13th for Williams and Nico Hülkenberg 20th for Haas.
Logan Sargeant was in 16th for Williams, Lance Stroll in 17th for Aston Martin, Liam Lawson 18th for AlphaTauri, Kevin Magnussen 19th for Haas and Zhou Guanyu 20th for Alfa Romeo.