Verstappen looks back on setback: 'We were very upset as a team'

As reigning world champion, Verstappen had hopes of starting his season right away in 2022, but after a promising winter test, things went wrong during the first three races. Indeed, twice Verstappen retired out with technical failure. The Dutchman was angry and stated that he would need 46 races to make up that deficit.

Setback for Verstappen

However, that proved not to be the case, as four races before the end of the season, Verstappen has already prolonged his title. Looking back on those first races, Verstappen does state that there was some irritation. ''To be honest, we were just very upset. But I think we also, we know that we have to fix it quickly. And to be honest, we were feeling alright. It was not like that we were down in the team. Everyone was like: ‘it's a long season, a lot of things can happen'''.

Verstappen states about his own statements from that time that there was also just some frustration involved. ''I think, about the team: we don't act really disappointed, or you certainly get a very different feeling within the team. Everyone is of course upset, with what happened, but then we also tried to really quickly fix it and super motivated to try and turn it around.''

Red Bull Racing succeeded quite well, as, after the setbacks of the first races, the Austrian racing stable then won six races in a row. Überhaupt hardly anyone came close to Red Bull in the rest of the season. Indeed, of the 15 races after the debacle in Australia, Red Bull won 13.