Abu Dhabi final race gives Verstappen confidence: 'That's very encouraging'

Max Verstappen took his 15th win of the calendar year in the final race of the season. No one could make things difficult for the Dutchman, which made him step out of his car with confidence. According to Verstappen, however, this does not mean it will be easy in 2023 as well.

While the driver secured his first world title of his Formula 1 career last race year, his second victory in the drivers' championship was even more impressive. After a difficult start to the season, no team was able to keep up with Verstappen. The Red Bull Racing driver expects this to be different next year.

"People are understanding the cars a lot more," commented Verstappen in the FIA press conference, attended by GPblog. "Over time all the teams will just edge closer. But from our side, yeah, it's been a really positive weekend. So that's, of course, really encouraging also for next year."

"We also know now, over the winter, we really have to keep pushing and keep trying to find performance and not only performance, understanding, possibly the tyres even more, because the tyres will change a bit for next year. So yeah, let's see how we are going to manage all of that."

Verstappen doesn't want to choose between world titles

Last season was more exciting than in 2022, Verstappen also noticed. However, he finds it hard to pinpoint which is nicer for a driver. In fact, according to Verstappen, it is nice to experience excitement, but at the same time this calendar year also gives him a lot of confidence.