Max Verstappen has added a level of consistency to his racing that has not been seen before, with the Dutchman previously prone to pushing beyond the limits at times, often resulting in a penalty or a DNF.
In 2022, Verstappen has not crashed out of a single race, only retiring due to technical issues out of his control in the early stages of the season, as Red Bull battled with the new regulations.
Former Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who now races in IndyCar, has been speaking to Sky about Verstappen’s recent success, and believes that the two-time world champion has learnt from his mistakes, reminding viewers about an incident the pair had in Monaco early in Verstappen’s career, when he tried an overly aggressive overtake and ended up having a high speed collision with the wall.
“I think Max wouldn’t do that today,” suggested Grosjean when looking back at the crash, which was entirely down to poor judgement from Verstappen.
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“Obviously, he got lucky because that was a big shunt for him. It cost me points as I had to go through the run-off to turn the car. But yes, that’s definitely something Max learned.
“And it’s normal. You can get all the preparation you want, and Max had a very, very fast career through single-seaters.
“So he came into Formula 1 super early. You can have all the preparation you want- when you get to Formula 1, it’s still F1 and it’s still harder than the rest. It’s still different and there’s more involved.”
The French driver believes that Verstappen winning his maiden world title has somewhat calmed him down, suggesting that he is now more at peace and knows where the limit is.
“Max has been very impressive in F1 and that first world championship settled him in nicely,” he said.
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“We knew Max is a super talented driver. I think winning his first world championship definitely gave him something more, a kind of confidence and peacefulness in his driving.
“He’s still the Max we love watching and he is always 100% driving the wheels off the car, but he just manages to stay at 100% and not go above that limit,” concluded Grosjean.
With Red Bull hindered next season by their cost cap penalty, it will be more difficult for Verstappen next season, but many fans still tip him to enter a period of Lewis Hamilton style dominance.