Verstappen secured the World Championship at this moment in July

Max Verstappen has had a record year. Some remarkable facts in a row: the most wins in one season, the highest number of points ever scored by a driver in an F1 season and the biggest gap to number two (Sergio Perez). With all the rankings made up, it is also possible to look back at when Verstappen was actually already world champion.

GPblog spoke with Jan Lammers ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix. The topic of conversation was Verstappen's impending world title, which he could indeed definitively celebrate that weekend. In retrospect, Lammers, a former F1 driver with 23 Grands Prix, spoke prophetic words.

"If we are going to look at his points total at the end of the year later on, we will find out that, at the time we are having this conversation, he was long since champion. If you take the points standings at Zandvoort, then maybe he was already champion at Zandvoort, only we will only know that at the end of the season," the current sporting director of the Dutch GP told us at the time.

Verstappen champion after Belgian GP

Verstappen started the Dutch Grand Prix - in early September - with 314 points already scored. With the entire season now behind him, the conclusion can be drawn that none of the competitors matched that number in the end. Perez finished the '23 season with 285 points. In retrospect, it can be said that after the Belgian Grand Prix - which was finished on 30 July - he already had the world title.