Verstappen sits at fifth on all-time win list
where Leclerc started on pole, as he did nine times this season, only to crash out while leading, with Hamilton finishing second and Russell third.
Hungary was next up after the summer break, and Verstappen won the race despite starting from 10th on the grid. The question now was not whether he would win back-to-back championships, but rather when he would clinch it. He followed up the Hungarian victory with victories at Spa, Monza and his home race at Zandvoort. That was a run of five consecutive wins. Singapore was a bit of a blip for Max, who only finished seventh, but not for Red Bull, as Perez won. It was also where we first heard rumours that Red Bull had exceeded the FIA cost cap by millions, and could possibly be deducted points or even disqualified from the championship.
On to Japan, and Max’s 12th win of the season meant he was again world champion. He then went on to win in Mexico and Brazil and the season finale in Abu Dhabi, to set a new record of 15 wins in one season. The 25-year old had dominated the season after a sketchy start. Leclerc just pipped Perez for second in the championship, after finishing second in Abu Dhabi. But the knives were out, as Red Bull was found guilty of breaching the budget cap by £1.86 million (NZ$3.57m), fined £6m ($11.5m), and will have a 10 per cent reduction in wind-tunnel time in 2023.
Ferrari had started as equal favourites with Red Bull after preseason testing, but while Leclerc ended up with three wins, he was a whopping 146 points behind on the points table. Perez, who had two race victories, was another three points back, just falling short of providing Red Bull with a 1-2 in the drivers’ championship. In addition to Sainz’s maiden victory in the British GP, Russell also had his first F1 win in the penultimate race in Brazil, with Hamilton second, proving Mercedes had
made a great comeback after an auspicious start. It was the first season since joining F1 in 2007 that Lewis had not won a race.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has now resigned from his position, basically taking the blame for some poor race strategy and reliability issues. Former Ferrari team boss Stefano
Domenicalli, who is now the FIA president, says he knows what Binotto has had to deal with, having resigned from the role himself in 2014 after just three races, when the team had started that season poorly.
“When you are second for Ferrari, it is something that is not enough,” he told Sky Sports. “I don’t want to get into the dynamics of the team - for sure, the only thing I want now is to wish him the best for the future.”
Ferrari has reportedly set its sights on Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur to replace Binotto, if his team will release him.
F1 journalist Peter Windsor has suggested the “stunning-looking car” Ferrari produced “flattered to deceive very early in the season, and I don’t think that car was ever quite as good as we thought it was, and by the time Red Bull got their car worked out, really it was only in qualifying when that Ferrari shone.”
In the end, Red Bull produced a car that won 17 out of its 22 races, the sort of dominance McLaren enjoyed in 1988 and 1989, that Ferrari saw from 2000 to 2004, and which Mercedes had from 2014 to 2020. Red Bull also won for four consecutive seasons with Sebastian Vettel as champion, 2010-2013, but two of those championships nearly went the way of Alonso’s Ferrari, so the dominance was not complete.
Verstappen is now collecting all the awards in a season where he took his winning total to 35 wins, fifth on the all-time list. Dutchman Jan Lammers, a former F1 driver, believes Verstappen’s success wasn’t a case of domination; rather, he had to work for it.
“I don’t know if all of us realise how special this year was,” he told Motorsport.com.
“Usually such victories come from dominance, but the most special thing of all is, Max hasn’t dominated. The last few races looked easy, but he still had to fight for it, and even started the season with a bit of adversity.”