IN PARC FERMÉ IN SUZUKA, where, after a rain-disrupted, chaotic race, the thick fog of points confusion gradually lifted to reveal that Max Verstappen had sealed the drivers’ title, the Red Bull driver was collared by former champion Jenson Button and asked how his second championship compared with his first. Max’s response was unequivocal.
“The second is even more beautiful,” he smiled. “Just [because of] the season we’ve had, with the wins, the great races, the teamwork, the 1-2s…”
He could have gone on. At the time of writing (post-Mexico) Verstappen has scored a record 14 wins, brushing aside the single-season total of 13 posted by Michael Schumacher in 2004 and Sebastian Vettel in 2013. He’s racked up the biggest points haul for a single campaign in history – 416 with two rounds remaining – and outscored his only real non-Red Bull rival Charles Leclerc by a whopping 141 points. MAX
The raw statistics of Verstappen’s second world title paint a picture of an unstoppable juggernaut on a scorched-earth march to glory. The question, however, is whether this is the result of the irresistible force generated by the 25-year old, or a function of other factors – a regularly sharpened spearhead in the shape of an aggressively developed RB18 boosted by a dwindling challenge from a blunted Ferrari – playing into Max’s gifted hands. The answer, as ever in sport, lies somewhere between the two.
Rewind to the start of the season and Red Bull entered the title fight as post-testing favourite. A
