Red Bull have been head and shoulders above their competitors this season, with Max Verstappen claiming his second consecutive world title, while the team secured the constructors’ championship.
The Dutchman has won an astounding 15 races this season, shattering the previous record of 13 held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel without breaking into a sweat.
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari challenged Red Bull early on in the season, but a catalogue of team errors saw the Scuderia take themselves out of the title race, leaving Verstappen to wrap the title up as early as the Japanese Grand Prix.
2016 champion Nico Rosberg has predicted things to only get better for Verstappen, suggesting that he is already one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, at the age of 25.
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“He is an incredible driver, I think that it is even easy to say that he’s going to be one of the best of all time, which he actually already is now if you look at the statistics,” said Rosberg.
“I mean, double world champion with all the race wins he has. I think more than [Fernando] Alonso now if I’m not mistaken so he’s already one of the best of all time and he’s only getting started, so I think he’s going to confirm that in the next decade, certainly.”
The German has claimed that Verstappen’s 2022 is one of the best individual seasons of all time, with the Red Bull driver blowing away the opposition despite not having machinery better than the rest for the whole season.
“His level of driving is phenomenal so it is great to witness that. And we need to remember also, it’s not like from the get-go this year his car was miles quicker than everybody else – no – the Ferrari was the quickest car when we got going at the beginning of the season and still, he got the incredible 15 wins and really destroyed the opposition in that way.
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“It’s one of the greatest driving seasons we’ve ever seen, it’s very impressive.”
While Verstappen dominated 2022, his old adversary Lewis Hamilton was unable to compete with him in a faltering Mercedes, so while he has been tipped to dominate for years to come, he will have to watch out for the resurgence of the Silver Arrows next year.
Verstappen himself said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that he is under no illusion how difficult it will be to replicate such an impressive season, but has claimed that his team will do everything they can to retain their titles next year.