Red Bull hit the ground running under the new regulations in 2022, managing to take advantage of Mercedes and Ferrari’s struggles to win their first constructors’ championship since 2013.
Max Verstappen won a record breaking 15 races on his was to his second consecutive world title, showing a scary level of consistency that has not previously been seen from the Dutchman.
In previous years, the 25-year-old was very error prone and was almost guaranteed to DNF from a couple of races per season as he pushed past the limit and made an unnecessary mistake.
Away from race weekends Verstappen enjoys sim racing and takes part in online races for Team Redline alongside his teammate Atze Kerkhof, even playing a part in the team’s Le Mans 24-hour performance last year.
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Kerkhof has explained in a recent interview that Verstappen’s driving style is what makes him so strong in Formula 1, with the Dutchman now able to find his exact limit without making mistakes.
“What makes Max very strong is that he is very dynamic in his driving so he can drive an impossible car and send it over the limit and on the edge of optimal performance better than anyone,” he said.
“At the beginning of the season, the Red Bull was lazy, and was easy to drive because of the understeer. Understeer is a very boring way to drive a car because, whatever you do with the brake pedal, at a certain point, the car just does not rotate anymore.
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“What Max does very well is balance a car that is too pointy, no-one else can handle it because they start sliding and he manages to make it perfectly smooth and uses that extra rotation and he can cancel that when he doesn’t need it.”
Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean has recently suggested that Verstappen’s first title win in 2021 saw the Dutchman calm down, meaning he is now less prone to mistakes and more consistent over the course of a race weekend.
Verstappen will need to use all of his natural driving talent is he wishes to retain his crown for another season, as both Ferrari and Mercedes are expected to come on leaps and bounds this year, having initially struggled under the new regulations.