by Daniel Roodt
Max Verstappen clinched his second World Drivers’ Championship after a dominant performance in a rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday 09 October. The Dutch Driver made it back-to-back championship wins after his win in Suzuka in what was a curtailed and somewhat controversial Grand Prix.
The bizarre decision by race control to put a recovery vehicle on the very slippery and treacherous track while the cars were still out there must be mentioned. It was an unsafe and shocking decision, particularly given the history of Suzuka, where Jules Bianchi passed away after sliding off the track and hitting a tractor during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
Verstappen came into the race needing to outscore Charles Leclerc by eight points and his teammate Sergio Perez by six points. This meant that if he won the race and received the bonus point for the fastest lap, he would become World Champion, no matter where Leclerc or Perez finished.
Unfortunately, despite cruising to victory, the confirmation of his second title was all but simple. As the number of laps was cut short due to the circuit being unsafe to race on, there was some confusion as to whether total points would be awarded at the end of the race.
Traditionally, points have been reduced depending on the percentage of the set number of laps completed. However, due to the controversy during the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix where a race result was declared after three laps behind the safety car, the FIA seems to have changed the rules to allow full points to be awarded as long as the race was finished under the chequered flag.
This meant that after Charles Leclerc was demoted to third place after receiving a five-second time penalty for cutting the last corner on the final lap, Max Verstappen was then declared the 2022 Formula 1 World Champion. As Perez finished seven points behind him and Leclerc 10 points behind him, it will be mathematically impossible for either driver to catch Verstappen in the remaining races this season.
It was a thoroughly deserved championship win for the Red Bull driver, who recovered from a shaky start at the beginning of the season due to Red Bull’s reliability issues. He has gone from strength to strength this season and has, at times, looked untouchable at the front of the pack. There have been barely any blemishes in his season, and he has shown remarkable pace in most races, including incredible recovery drives in Hungary and Belgium.
While Ferrari posed no real threat after the first few races, due to reliability issues and dismal strategy decisions, Verstappen seized every opportunity to storm to a second World Championship in as many years. All that is left now is for the team to wrap up the Constructors’ Championship, which they could do in the next race in Austin, USA.
All that remains for the 2022 World Champion is to claim the record for the most wins in a Formula 1 season. The current record is jointly held by Germans Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, both of whom won 13 races in a season. With Verstappen on 12 wins and four races still to come, it looks like it’ll be a shoo-in, given his current form and Ferrari’s inability to mount a sustained challenge.