Opinion: Verstappen elevated to “Formula 1 great” with 2022 performance

Max Verstappen’s performance in the 2022 Formula 1 season has been nothing short of phenomenal. Red Bull Racing do have the better car, though not by much in comparison to Ferrari. The Dutchman has played to his car’s strengths and is now amongst the F1 greats. 

Back-to-back titles 

Verstappen couldn’t possibly have won his two titles in more different circumstances. First in the now famous battle with Lewis Hamilton and then a dominant performance in 2022 where nobody really troubled him in the championship aside from the opening five or six races. Ferrari have a very fast car. Their strength comes in the corners and because cars spend more time in the corners, that strength really comes through in the lap time. The qualifying statistics back that up with Ferrari getting almost twice as many pole positions in comparison to Red Bull. 

In contrast, Red Bull have dominated straight-line speed. In 2021, Verstappen had to be more aggressive in the corners and on opening laps because Mercedes were on par or even ahead in straight-line speed. This year, Verstappen has completely altered his style to favour what the car does best. Instead of being overly aggressive in the corners or off the start line, Verstappen has hung back and waited for the right moment. With the better straight-line speed, combined with slipstream and often DRS, Verstappen has been far more patient. He’s changed his driving style to suit the strength of the car and that adaption is one reason to put him in the great bracket. 

In 2022, Verstappen has had to fine-tune the car to his liking. It has to be noted that Sergio Perez was much closer to Verstappen at the start of the season compared to the middle and end. Perez’s recent victory in Singapore was only the second time the Mexican had been on the podium since the British Grand Prix in early July. Before that, it was a rare sight to see him away from the podium. This shows that Verstappen’s feedback has been perfect. He has been able to explain to engineers how to unlock the performance in the car, and also reported feedback for upgrades to suit his style. Another reason to put him in the great bracket. 

Stats

Verstappen’s statistics are mind-blowing. As always, it’s worth keeping in mind the inflation rate we’ve seen on statistics over the last couple of decades in F1. The number of races per season is deep into the 20s whereas when Michael Schumacher was winning titles, seasons were lucky to see 17 races. 

But it’s still worth highlighting that Verstappen now has 32 wins to his name and is level with Fernando Alonso on the all-time list. ‘Just’ 20 wins in the next two seasons could see him surpass Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel in the all-time list to sit behind only Schumacher and Hamilton. Indeed, by that point he will already have around 50% of Hamilton’s career total wins. 

It’s not unrealistic to say that Verstappen has at least another 13 seasons in him. And of course, he will have to make wise career moves to avoid becoming the next Alonso but it’s nowhere near beyond the realms of possibility for him to win at least five races per season. And that’s probably a ‘bad season’. We never thought that Schumacher’s records would be beaten until Hamilton came along and smashed most of them out of the ballpark. Given Verstappen’s performance and Red Bull’s current dominance on the rest of the field, it almost feels inevitable that those records will be broken again. Formula 1 has found a superstar. 

What’s it mean for Leclerc?

Throughout his stint at Ferrari, little whispers inside my head have said ‘he’s overrated. Those whispers have grown louder and louder. They're becoming impossible to hold back. The 2022 season has made me more and more convinced that Leclerc is one of the most overrated drivers in recent Formula 1 history. Leclerc still has bags of time to prove that claim is fictitious but in 2022 the man from Monaco has come up a long way short. The errors that Ferrari made have been terrible, but sometimes they have just papered over the cracks Leclerc has shown in his ability. Speaking of cracks, he has cracked under pressure multiple times. 

The first one that springs to mind is the mistake at the chicane in Imola. There wasn’t any need for him to take a big risk there. A more measured approach was required, but the driver buckled and he lost a chunk of points. Even though it was early days, scoreboard pressure does play a part in Formula 1. 

The mistake in France was really bizarre and cost him a likely race victory. Those are the two big errors that have cost Leclerc directly 32 points, but there’s more to it than that. In the Japanese Grand Prix FP2, Leclerc pushed too hard and almost went into the wall. There have been various other moments in practice sessions where mistakes have cost him track time. 

Aside from that, he needed to be bolder in pitstop calls when Ferrari let him down. For example, it was George Russell making the calls against what Mercedes wanted in Zandvoort, could Leclerc have thought about the double-stack pitstop in Monaco? It would’ve been impossible to prevent all of Ferrari’s mistakes but sometimes the driver has be more assertive in what he wants. 

When these two drivers burst on the scenes, we knew it was all about Verstappen and Leclerc for the foreseeable future. But Leclerc is already years behind in terms of development in comparison to Verstappen.