Just two rounds remain in the 2022 Formula 1 championship, with all eyes set to be on the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and the fight between Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc for second in the Drivers’ Standings.
For Max Verstappen, the last two events of the year are simply an added bonus for the Dutchman, who wrapped up his second consecutive title back at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The World Champion can enjoy himself at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix and next weekend’s season finale in Abu Dhabi, which will be drastically less stressful than the same event last season.
There is still something to play for, though, with the 25-year-old having eclipsed the record for most wins in a single season at the recent Mexican Grand Prix.
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Following victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Verstappen moved ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s and Michael Schumacher’s joint record for 13 wins in a season, with the Red Bull star now sitting pretty on 14.
Given that he will enter this weekend and next weekend as the favourite, he will have every chance to push the benchmark for the record to an unprecedented 16 wins.
If Verstappen wins this weekend in Brazil and next weekend in Abu Dhabi, then he will have won 66.6-percent of the races this season and will have finished in the top three at 81.8-percent of the events this season.
His superiority this year is simply unmatched, with the Dutch driver appearing to be in good form ahead of this weekend in Interlagos, where he smiled and waved to the media, including Sky, during the pre-weekend press conference.
Verstappen and Red Bull confirmed ahead of the weekend that following a boycott of all Sky interviews in Mexico City, they would resume normal communication with the network this weekend.
It comes after Sky F1’s director met with Red Bull bosses at the team’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, in what was somewhat of an emergency meeting to end the duo’s bad blood.
Red Bull decided to not speak to Sky in Mexico following a number of comments made by Sky F1 in the UK specifically, with reporter Ted Kravitz having called Lewis Hamilton an eight-time World Champion, as well as that the Brit was ‘robbed’ by former race director Michael Masi.
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He also stated that Verstappen can’t win a title under “normal circumstances”, albeit in a jokey manner.
The constant digs became too much for the Dutch driver and the Austrian side; however, Verstappen revealed that the pair “drew a line under it”.
“We drew a line under it, and so we just keep on going, I’m looking forward,” he explained to media ahead of the weekend in Brazil.