Who knows if Max Verstappen will see the image of Johnny Herbert in front of him when he thinks back to winning his second world title. At the end of the Suzuka Grand Prix he learned of the conclusion of the race when he was in turn 2, as the checkered flag was not flown in time.
It was his faithful engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, who informed him of the conclusion of the race and the consequent victory of the Japanese Grand Prix. Max returned to the pits greeting the Japanese public, as always the best in the entire world.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
While Verstappen gave Herbert the interview reserved for the winner, news arrived of the penalty imposed on Charles Leclerc, which brought Max’s advantage over Perez (at that point second in the general classification) to 113 points, an unbridgeable margin to four. stages from the end of the season.
The Red Bull mechanics waved to his address, and it took Verstappen a few moments to realize that he was arithmetically world champion. A little stunned by the situation, he answered the usual questions, commenting like a world champion but not entirely convinced of the counts. “Are you really sure, huh?”, He asked before being portrayed in a ‘real’ chair in the back of the podium, and once he had an affirmative answer he understood that there were no more doubts.
World Champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Beyond the thrilling finale, Verstappen celebrated his second world title at the end of an impressive race, running at prohibitive rates for the rest of the group, including his teammate Perez and Leclerc himself. At the finish line it was twenty-seven seconds to divide Max from the Perez-Leclerc tandem, and all in twenty-eight laps of the race, making what easy is not at all easy seem easy.
It is true that Red Bull has confirmed a much higher potential than Ferrari (blocked by the excessive degradation of the front tires), but that is not the point. The Verstappen version 2022 is a metronome, when setting the rhythm there is not a single mistake or a smudge that can affect its lap times. A hammer.
“He is in his best form – commented Christian Horner – he is driving incredibly well, we are just very proud of him. Last year we saw a clash between two titans, and being the winner took away a lot of pressure from him, as we have seen this season ”.
Max has grown a lot, improving his vision of the race and learning to race for the final goal and to bring home the maximum possible when Sunday is not the best. But this did not affect his talent, which remained crystal clear, and today we saw it well in the first start, when Leclerc had a better idea. “Max made his tires pat too much at the start – confirmed Horner – but then he showed off his karting guide by choosing the external line at the first corner”.
The controversy that accompanied the conquest of his first title, and partly also of the second, must not obscure what this driver was able to do. Without him, Red Bull would not have won any of the last two drivers’ world championships, the added value that he guaranteed is publicly recognized by the same team, which is no coincidence that it pampers its champion as it has never done with any driver in its history. .
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen owes a lot to Formula 1, but the reverse is also true. Years go by (Max is in his eighth season) but the freshness of his driving is still intact, he has never given up on daring every time he has seen the opportunity.
Over time he has only sharpened his weapons, becoming an infallible sniper who has treasured past mistakes, a process that has led him to be a top-driver in the fullest sense of the term.
Years ago there were days when he lost control, sinning with exuberance, but it is now a distant memory. Today he gets in the car as if it were his own road car, even when there is to go to win a world championship or to face a race in very treacherous conditions, as it was today at Suzuka. And it is a calm that scares the opponents, who have seen the last crack in which they can make a breach vanish.
At the age of twenty-five Verstappen enters the club of the two world champions, and does so with great authority. The numbers are already the ones that give meaning to an entire career, but in Max’s case the impression is still that of being at the beginning of a story to be written.
It is not only a question of age, but also of freshness in driving, of that desire to approach the track that is typical of kart drivers. Welcome, and above all welcome, this new Verstappen, who has put aside the deleterious killer-instinct of 2021 to make way for a true champion. Chapeau …
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