![]() ![]() Some signage blows onto the front of the car of AlphaTauri's French driver Pierre Gasly during a rainstorm at the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Mie prefecture on October 9, 2022. With both drivers being daring and ruthless and backed by teams with little love for each other, last season gave fans the kind of title race they had been craving since Rosberg edged Mercedes teammate Hamilton to the title in 2016. The emergence of Verstappen as a challenger – and then successor – to Hamilton’s crown has been without question one of the biggest contributing factors to the power shift at the top of the sport. “So, obviously, they’re still not on par with Red Bull and Ferrari, but they’ve shown that once they’ve got a problem and understand it, they can then cure it and make some gains and get lap time.” “I think the positive thing for Mercedes is that if you look at where they started at the beginning of the season and where they are now, they’ve made huge gains in terms of ultimate performance,” Barretto explains. Peter Fox/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images Max Verstappen celebrates becoming F1 world champion with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. Mercedes has failed to win a race all season and Hamilton’s current points tally of 180 is less than half of Verstappen’s. However, both Red Bull and Mercedes know how quickly things can change in F1.Īfter winning both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships for four straight years between 20, Red Bull didn’t taste success again in either until Verstappen won the drivers’ championship in dramatic and controversial circumstances on the final lap of the 2021 season.ĭespite losing out on the drivers’ championship, Mercedes still claimed a record eighth consecutive constructors’ championship last season, but the team has seen an alarming drop off to its rivals in both championships in 2022. “As long as he’s winning, I don’t think he’s going anywhere, and Red Bull and Max are just making such good decisions at the moment and everything is operationally working so well that I think we could see a period as dominant, if not more dominant, than Mercedes.” “I think Max is driving at such a high level now that, yeah, I think he probably could go on to not just dominate this era of Formula One – up until 2026 when the regulations will change again – but possibly beyond that because he’s only 25 years old and he could go on if he wants to for 15, 16 years. ![]() ![]() “But Red Bull have not only made the best of the new regulations, but they seem to have a driver in Max that is driving at a level that I’ve not seen since Lewis Hamilton. “I think that if you asked me last year after that really tight battle with Mercedes, I would have said it was going to be a bit more challenging to go on the kind of run that Mercedes had done,” Lawrence Barretto, correspondent and presenter for F1, told CNN Sport. Given the ease with which Verstappen clinched the title and the ever-increasing gap between Red Bull and its rivals, perhaps the most pertinent question going forward is not whether the Christian Horner-led team can win the drivers’ championship again in 2023, but how many can they win in a row? The FIA has yet to announce how Red Bull will be penalized for breaching the cost cap. “Our 2021 submission was below the cost cap limit, so we need to carefully review the FIA’s findings as our belief remains that the relevant costs are under the 2021 cost cap amount,” the statement added. “We note the findings by the FIA of ‘minor overspend breaches of the financial regulations’ with surprise and disappointment,” Red Bull said in a statement earlier this month. One caveat that has yet to fully play out regarding Red Bull’s success is that the team breached F1’s cost cap rules in 2021, according to the sport’s governing body the FIA. Such was Verstappen’s sheer dominance, the Dutchman became only the fourth driver in F1 history to secure the world championship with four or more races remaining. 'Have I or have I not?': Max Verstappen crowned world champion in chaotic circumstances at Japanese Grand Prix (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Eugene Hoshiko/AP Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates his win during the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Sunday, Oct. ![]()
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