Max Verstappen “Slaughtered” Lewis Hamilton & Co. While Only One Other Driver Stands as a Worthy Opponent

Max Verstappen’s triumph in the 2022 drivers’ championship, his second consecutive, was not ordinary. What started out as a gloomy season for him and the team, because of early reliability issues, later went down as a phase of utter dominance for both of them. The magnitude was so great that Verstappen sealed the championship four races before the final with a whopping 146-point lead over Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen finished the season with 15 victories, nine of which came in the last 11 races. No driver stood a chance in front of him, and this is why former Ferrari driver, René Arnoux while talking to La Gazetta dello Sport and quoted by GP Fans, said that the Dutchman “slaughtered” the drivers and only Charles Leclerc came close to him. Arnoux praised Max Verstappen’s driving skills and praised the Red Bull driver for his dominant performance in the 2022 season.

He said, “Verstappen and Red Bull were supreme. Several times, like at Zandvoort, for example, he slaughtered everyone in the race. In my eyes, Charles Leclerc comes close to him, but Verstappen still has that little bit more.”

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While Leclerc started off strong, Verstappen gave no chance to either him or even his teammate Sergio Perez, to recover in the second half of the season. The prancing horse’s strategies and overall pace just weren’t good enough to counter the bull.

Did Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have different cars?

In Formula 1, there’s always speculation that a constructor largely favors one of its drivers, whom it wants to push forward for the championship. Many fans believed that Max Verstappen had a superior car to Sergio Perez. However, Arnoux doesn’t believe so. 

“Perez won in Monaco and Singapore on the slower circuits. But when people call out that Perez does not have the same car as Max, those are silly statements,” he argued, as quoted by RacingNews365.

Arnoux further complemented Max for his extraordinary braking skills. Highlighting his overtake from Japan, where he won the championship in a bizarre way, Arnoux said, “What he did there…. He executed an overtake outside in the rain to perfection. When it is asked of him, he can brake later than anyone else.”

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Arnoux bets on Mercedes to compete alongside Red Bull and hopes Ferrari will be there too until the end of the season. It remains to be seen if the Silver Arrows and other teams can stop Verstappen’s success, even if they develop a competitive car.