Verstappen: It will be very difficult to repeat a season like this

Max Verstappen is very happy to have won the title in Japan – happy for his entire team, for the Honda mechanics, and believes that such successful seasons as 2022 are rare, so he doubts such success will be repeated.

Q: You’ve become a two-time world champion – what emotions are you experiencing right now? You won the race with a big advantage, but it seems that until the finish you didn’t think at all that you would become world champion…
Max Verstappen: Of course, experiences are insanely complex. In the beginning I won the race, but it turned out that I also won the championship – it was an incredibly successful season! I could not have imagined that this would already happen in 2022, although I was determined to fight until the end and this year I have such a good car.

In general, I am very grateful to everyone who has helped me achieve success – this is of course our whole team: both the employees who work on the track and those who have stayed on the base of Red Bull Racing. They all work with maximum effort, constantly trying to make the car faster.

In addition, it is of course necessary to note separately the work we have done together with Honda, which is progressing quickly and steadily every year. You see, to win the second title with them, especially on this track, in front of everyone – this is all causing very strong emotions. The pressure is also a bit stronger, but it’s good pressure, positive. I am therefore very proud that we have achieved this in Suzuka.

Q: You won the title in 2021 and now in 2022 – these two championships have evolved differently, but which one would you pick?
Max Verstappen: I think the first one made for a slightly stronger experience. While the second will probably go even better, we won it in a great way. This season there have been a lot of wins and double wins, we’ve had great races, the team is doing great, we are in the lead in the Constructors’ Championship and now we want to focus all our efforts to win it too.

All in all, it’s been a special year, and I think we need to remind ourselves of that, because seasons don’t often go that well. So of course I’m very happy. Although when I crossed the finish line I still didn’t believe we had won the title because I didn’t know if we would get the full number of points or not.

In any case, it was a great day. We had a great race, the car worked great, the tires too – overall I’m happy we won at this track. And then I discovered that the win gave me the title – this was of course also made possible by a 5 second penalty that Charles Leclerc received. I think there was not complete confidence in the beginning, but in the end I was very happy.

But this is also an opportunity to reflect on how the whole season went, as there were many unforgettable moments. It is very important to note that this is an achievement of the whole team, so I believe we should enjoy this moment and appreciate everything that has been done by all the people around me.

We all travel a lot around the world, we all work hard to achieve a common goal. And I have no doubt that it will be very difficult to repeat such a season.

Q: And what about the key moments of the race? Let’s start at the beginning because before the first turn there was a very sharp battle between you and Charles…
Max Verstappen: Yes, I had a terrible start, but this has happened before, so I was prepared for the start not to be particularly excellent – and it happened. But I think the outside line in the first two corners was a bit more favorable because the grip was better there and I could brake a little later. In general, the duel was sharp, but I think the crowd likes that.

Q: What can you say about the track conditions? What were they like before the race was shut down and after the restart?
Max Verstappen: It was raining quite a bit and on the first lap on the intermediate tires I literally pushed the limit. By the time the safety car pulled away, there was too much water on the track, even for heavy rain tires. If this had gone on, it would have been impossible to fly – as I led the way, but those who followed me saw nothing at all.

Overall it was very difficult to drive so the decision to stop the race was the right one. When the first attempt at a restart was made, the conditions were unsuitable for this as it was raining more and more and there was no sign of the track starting to dry out. I think the moment for the resumption of the race has been chosen correctly. There were still some streams on the track, but we switched to intermediate tires quite quickly, so the decision was definitely the right one.

Q: You dominated unconditionally and broke away from your rivals for 27 seconds for 28 laps. What can you say about the car?
Max Verstappen: The car showed itself well, and we also worked very efficiently with rubber. We were able to save the front tires, although they are heavily loaded on this track. I think this has given me such a speed advantage because if the front tires in the first sector offer a little more grip, it helps a lot. But it was a lot of fun to fly!

Question We heard the opinions of several drivers about the episode where a tow truck with a crane appeared on the track. Do you think it might be necessary to introduce a strict rule: if the track conditions are the same as during this Grand Prix, then there should be no vehicles on the track?
Max Verstappen: Of course I was the first to reach this part of the tracks and see the crane, but in my case the visibility was perfect. But when you follow someone’s car, you always try to get out of the veil of the spray, go left or right, because you can’t see anything ahead. It is precisely in such a situation that problems are possible.

You can turn sharply to the left and suddenly see a crane or other obstacle in front of you, and this is dangerous at any speed. Something definitely needs to be done about this.

Q: What else can be done to provide the fans with an interesting show, even in such circumstances, and not confuse them? The restart was long delayed, and it was the same in Singapore. What can be done to avoid such situations?
Max Verstappen: I think we need more efficient wet tires. Remember what rain racing was like in the 90s or early 2000s, how much water was on the track back then. I would be happy if more test days were reserved for tire testing, when we tested the effectiveness of different types of rubber.

But rain tires should be better. I think the heavy rain tires are too slow and don’t drain enough water. That’s why everyone always tries to quickly switch to intermediate tires, which allows you to go through circles much faster.

As soon as we switched to them, we immediately went at least five seconds faster and this is too much of a difference. When it’s raining so hard, after the race has been stopped by red flags, you have to put tires on for heavy rain, but it’s still very difficult to drive.

But if we compare this situation with that of 20 years ago, then there were no problems. So there must be a solution. I don’t want this to be taken as criticism, but I would like to help solve this problem. We have to take care of it.

Maybe we just need to organize more tests and work together to make the tires more efficient. We should at least be able to race normally on a wet track. It is not always possible to do a few laps on the heavy rain tires and then go to the intermediate and then call this race a wet race because such races are usually accompanied by really heavy showers.