After a stuttering start in 2022, which saw Max Verstappen retire from the races in Bahrain and Australia, the Dutchman stormed to his second consecutive championship, treating fans to some of his best performances ever along the way.
The 25-year-old broke Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 wins in a season, finishing first in a staggering 15 Grand Prix on his way to championship glory.
While Red Bull dominated the majority of the race weekends in 2022, Verstappen as claimed that there was one specific race which sticks out in his mind, suggesting that nothing could have prevented him from winning.
“Spa I would say,” said the Dutchman when asked for his strongest performance of the year.
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“The car was very good, but also I think everything just clicked. Sometimes you have these weekends where everything just feels amazing.
“I think even if we would have started last for that race, we would still have won! That’s how competitive we were.”
Verstappen started the Belgian Grand Prix in 14th place following a power unit related grid penalty, but in a matter of laps found himself leading the race after a sunning recovery drive.
Not every race went as smoothly for Red Bull as Spa however, as the team experienced their worst patches of form at either end of the season, and Verstappen has now outlined two races in particular that were his least favourite.
“In terms of general overall performance, [Brazil is] probably on par with Melbourne, we were also pretty bad there,” claimed Verstappen.
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“Just in general the pace was terrible. We had a lot of issues in qualifying, getting the balance right in the race and we were destroying the tyres. So that was probably pretty even.”
After wrapping up both titles with races to spare, Red Bull switched their attention to planning for 2023, which potentially explains why the team appeared to look slightly weaker towards the latter end of the season.
While Verstappen has said that he is thankful for a relatively easy season for himself and his team, the 25-year-old has suggested that he would prefer to have a close title battle once again in 2023 instead of being able to cruise to another victory, such is the competitive of the two-time world champion.