Max Verstappen is on the cusp of claiming a third consecutive Drivers’ Championship, something which has become possible due to him being completely in-sync with Red Bull’s 2023 car, the RB19.
The reigning World Champion can seal the crown once again this weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix, with him being able to clinch the title in Saturday’s sprint race.
He’s had a mesmeric and record-breaking season, which saw him go on a run of 10 consecutive race wins, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine wins in a row from 2013.
Overall, the Dutchman has won 13 times this season, with his most recent win at the Japanese Grand Prix having wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship for Red Bull.
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Watching Verstappen drive the RB19 is a thing of beauty this year, mostly due to just how much he pushes the car to its absolute limit.
Him and the RB19 just appear to be a match made in heaven; however, this wasn’t actually the case in the opening rounds.
Whilst Verstappen won two of the opening three rounds, he entered the fourth round in Azerbaijan not entirely happy with the performance of the RB19.
Sergio Perez appeared much more settled, something which kept him in the title fight early on.
Perez claimed victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, whilst Verstappen finished second after being unable to catch the Mexican driver.
It was seemingly a weekend of experimentation for the two-time World Champion though, who revealed following the Azerbaijan GP that he “tried a lot of stuff and different tools in the car”, some of which resulted in “quite interesting” findings once implemented.
It was after the race in Baku that he went on his 10-race winning streak and became truly unstoppable.
For many, this leaves a big question; what exactly did Verstappen work on in Azerbaijan that worked so well?
The Dutchman isn’t in a position to answer this, although he did reveal that he became more confident in attacking corners and looking after his tyres.
“I can’t go into details, but it’s been a nice step forward from that race in just looking after the tyres,” Verstappen explained to media including RacingNews365.com.
“I just got more confidence in feeling how I could attack corners and the balance and feedback I would get from the car.”
Whilst Red Bull have already sealed the title, they aren’t in a position where they can test parts for next season, something which Verstappen finds a “little bit annoying”.
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Red Bull have seemingly found some solutions to solve their Singapore woes, although these won’t be tested until 2024.
“I think we have a lot of ideas, but we can’t really show that until next year,” Verstappen noted.
“That is a little bit annoying but in another way, it gives us a bit of time to fully understand everything and also work on trying to improve the car for these kinds of tracks.”