How Max Verstappen won the F1 championship for the third year in a row, causing the tournament to lose its competitiveness…

Max Verstappen won the 2023 F1 world championship 5 races early. Photo: Formula 1
On October 8, Max Verstappen knew he would become the 2023 F1 world champion when the sprint race in Qatar had not yet ended. His main opponent, Sergio Perez, cannot ensure the necessary conditions (at least finishing in the Top 3) to hold on to hope.

This is the third consecutive year Verstappen has won the world championship.

This is not the longest winning streak in F1 racing history. Before that, Lewis Hamilton won the championship for 6 consecutive years (out of a total of 7 championships), Michael Schumacher won for 5 consecutive years (in a total of 7 championships). won), or Juan Manuel Fangio, Sebastien Viettel 4 consecutive years. However, the way the driver with dual Belgian and Dutch nationality won in the last two seasons has raised questions.

Is Verstappen’s performance too high, too excellent, or does it seem like the current F1 world no longer has a worthy opponent to make the journey through the races more thrilling?

2020 was the closest time the winner was not Verstappen. Hamilton won that year and at the age of 35 at that time, the British driver was highly appreciated for his ability to surpass Schumacher to become the first eight-time world champion.

In 2021, Hamilton and Verstappen created a fierce rivalry, having to wait until the last round of the final race in Abu Dhabi (UAE) to decide the winner. Hamilton is only 8.5 points behind his opponent.
Verstappen won the F1 championship for 3 consecutive years. Photo: Formula 1
It was a small gap, but it seemed to be a big shock to Hamilton, so for many days, his silence opened up the possibility of retirement. Finally, ahead of the 2022 season, Hamilton still returned, but he was never the same again.

On the contrary, Verstappen flourished at the age of 24, and was in the environment of the Red Bull team with favorable conditions, no opponent could challenge him.

When Hamilton is now just a name to maintain F1’s attraction, Charles Leclerc is expected to take his place to create a challenge for Verstappen. The driver from Monaco brought hope by winning 2 of the first 3 races of the 2022 season, while at the same time, Verstappen once finished 19th and did not finish the race once.

However, since then, Leclerc has declined, only having one more race win in the rest of the season. Verstappen won 14/19 races and successfully defended the championship.

This season, while no competitor from other racing teams can cause trouble for Verstappen, the main race becomes an internal matter for Red Bull, with Perez being the pursuer.

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and the Mercedes team have enough strength to bring a challenge to Verstappen and Red Bull. Photo: Formula 1

It is said to be “chasing”, but in reality the Mexican racer only won 2 races. Verstappen won 14 races and 1 race belonged to Carlos Sainz. And at the end of the stage in Qatar last weekend, while Verstappen had 433 points, Perez only had 224.

The championship is in Verstappen’s name when the season still has 5 races left in the US (2 races), Mexico, Brazil and UAE. In 2022, he won 4 races early…

After Verstappen’s victory, Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell said: “From the start, Red Bull were much superior to everyone else, and then Max was clearly on another level. So we can only congratulate him.

We have to look at ourselves and try to make things difficult for them next year, because no one likes to see that kind of dominance.

We want to be in the fight and put them under a little bit of pressure.”

Perhaps, the fans really want that too, but there will be many questions that Mercedes must answer when looking at the results table for the racing team this season, only once did Ferrari step in between Red Bull’s victories. , the team always adapts very quickly to adjustments.

Therefore, we cannot expect too much from Russell’s statement…