Red Bull makes conscious choice: 'Before, Verstappen would get bothered'

Helmut Marko sees his pupil Max Verstappen starting to drive more and more maturely. The Austrian sees situations occurring in 2022 that would have driven the reigning world champion crazy in the past, but now remains extremely calm.

Verstappen is already in his eighth season in Formula 1 and, at 24, he is still among the younger drivers. Consequently, the Red Bull Racing driver is still getting better every year, as Marko also sees. Who brought Verstappen to the top F1 team quite early in 2016, but saw that risk work out well later.

In 2022, Red Bull has not always had the fastest car with the RB18. Many pole positions went to Ferrari, but in the race it often fell to Red Bull Racing anyway. Partly because of Ferrari's mistakes, but also because of a conscious choice by Red Bull.

''But that is conscious. We're working towards the race. That would have bothered Max a lot a year or two ago. He always wanted to be at the front. Max drives faster with less risk and with less material wear,'' Red Bull's top man told ORF.

Verstappen can win his second world title in a row for Red Bull Racing in Singapore. The Dutchman already has 116 points in the championship, but is still dependent on results from Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc in Singapore. Therefore, Verstappen seems most likely to be able to celebrate his second world title in Japan.