“Come On, Little Tap!”: Enjoying Front Row Seat to AOTY, Max Verstappen Could Only Wish for Chaos on His F1 Rivals

A bad race for Max Verstappen was a rare sight in 2022. Yet, he had his off days on some of the race weekends. One such race weekend was at the British GP. Verstappen suffered damage to his car in the initial part of the race. Nonetheless, he got to watch some good action from the comfort of his cockpit right in front of him.

After Max Verstappen dropped out from the lead of the Silverstone race, he was on a recovery drive. Verstappen was struggling in his damaged RB18 and somehow was holding on to P7. Though as the end of the race approached, Max got to watch some enthralling racing ahead of him.

Addressing the FIA Action of the Year (AOTY), Verstappen stated how he had the front-row seat to watch the racing action in the final stint of the British GP. On the F1 talks show, Max said, “I was watching the entertainment in front of me. That’s fun as well sometimes.”

The Dutchman saw how closely Charles Leclerc, his teammate Sergio Perez, and Lewis Hamilton were racing on Lap 45 at Silverstone. He hoped that maybe a chaotic incident amongst this Action of the Year trio might have benefitted him.

Max added, “You’re hoping: Come on, little tap! Someone take the front wing off! It was not happening.” Yet the close racing was entertaining to watch as Verstappen admitted himself.

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Eventually, Verstappen finished P7 in the eventful British GP. The Red Bull driver did not have a great race at Silverstone for the 2nd successive year. Though he still suffered similar torrid races in Monaco and Singapore too.

The odd lows of Max Verstappen in his 15-win dominant year

Max Verstappen certainly may not have liked the heat of Singapore, as he suffered a forgettable weekend at Marina Bay this year. The Dutchman was already struggling with his team to set the car up ideally for the high downforce street track.

In qualifying, destiny again dealt him a bad hand, as Verstappen had to abort his final Q3 run and returned to the pits. The 25-year-old was frustrated on the radio as his engineer tried to calm him down.

Apparently, Max’s car was running out of fuel, and as per FIA regulations, they need a certain amount of fuel sample post the session.

This left Max starting in P8 on the grid for the Singapore GP. While he showed some good progress in the wet conditions on the streets of Marina Bay, it wasn’t Verstappen’s day. As he finished just P7 after some incidents in the race, while his teammate Sergio Perez took the win.

Nonetheless, after the season the Red Bull man won’t be too concerned about the odd bad race, given he dominated 15 of them this year.

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Verstappen is looking like the driver to beat as we head into 2023. With Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc gearing up to probably challenge him, it will be interesting to see how he tackles them. Whom do you expect to challenge Max next season?