Max Verstappen Reveals the Turning Point in His Title Fight With Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc: “We Quickly Turned It Around”

When we look at Max Verstappen and his 2022 season as a whole, he has undoubtedly dominated. In the very early stages of the 2022 F1 championship, it looked as though Red Bull had in fact fallen short. And that Ferrari would run away with all the silverware and accolades.

However, according to Max Verstappen, there was a clear turning point in the 2022 calendar when the Dutch driver and the Milton-Keynes-based outfit realized that their title ambitions were clearly still achievable.

While speaking about the race that turned the championship on its head, he told Motorsport.com, “After two DNFs, we were very behind, but in hindsight we quickly turned it around.” [translated via Google Translate]

“I don’t know exactly after which race I thought the title was achievable, but Imola has been very important. At that time we really needed a good result.”

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You’d imagine that after what went down last year at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the 7x Champion Lewis Hamilton would not have words of encouragement or praise for the 2x Champion, Verstappen. You couldn’t be far away from the truth.

Lewis Hamilton showers heaps of praise over arch-nemesis Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen probably don’t even see eye-to-eye now, and with good reason. But with the performances that the Dutch driver has put in 2022, even Hamilton could not stop gushing over the sublime season that Verstappen has had.

He began by saying, “I can’t say that I’ve had time to study every aspect of what Max has done this year, but I think he’s done an amazing job. He’s done everything that he had to do. The team provided him with an amazing car and he’s delivered pretty much every weekend.”

“He can be proud of the job that he’s done.”

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With everything that Max Verstappen has achieved this season, he will undoubtedly go down in the annals of F1 history as a legend. But does he have what it takes to match Lewis Hamilton’s legacy in the sport?