At the start of the 2022 Formula1 season, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari looked like the main competitors to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car. Ferrari cemented this idea by finishing 1st and 2nd in the opening race in Bahrain, where Max Verstappen was classified as finishing 19th after fuel system failure on lap 54.
Verstappen returned strongly in the next race, winning the Saudi Arabian GP, where Leclerc finished 2nd. However, after reliability problems returned in the next race in Australia, where Verstappen had to retire his car after a fuel leak, and Leclerc won the race comfortably, it looked like Ferrari was going to cruise along for the rest of the season. That assessment was fair at that time since Leclerc had amassed 71 points in the opening three rounds and had a 46-point lead compared to Verstappen.
But Verstappen and Red Bull had other ideas, and they proved to everyone else that making predictions of the title this early into an F1 season wasn’t a brilliant idea. Verstappen didn’t look behind after his Australian DNF and won 10 out of the next 13 rounds, showcasing his speed and class. Many would say Verstappen had an easy run due to Ferrari’s questionable decision-making and reliability problems. Leclerc got DNF in Spain and Azerbaijan, and his crash at the French GP was no one else’s fault but his own.
Verstappen showed the world that not only did he take full advantage of having the fastest car on the grid, but the calm and composure with which he managed to beat the rest of the grid proved to everyone else that his 2021 world driver championship win was no fluke either. However, Hamilton fans would not want to agree with us on this.
So with 16 of the 22 races of the season done and dusted, Verstappen can mathematically wrap up the world driver championship race in Singapore on Sunday.
Verstappen has a 116 points lead over his closest rival, Charles Leclerc, with six races remaining. The only other drivers who are mathematically in this picture are Sergio Perez from Red Bull, who is 125 points behind his teammate, and Mercedes’s driver George Russell who is trailing Verstappen by 132 points. However, the chances of Verstappen winning the title race in Singapore would mean that Leclerc, Perez, and Russell would have a terrible race, given the strength of their cars compared to the rest of the grid.
How Verstappen can win the driver’s championship in Singapore
- If Verstappen wins the race with the fastest lap (gaining 26 points) and Leclerc finishes 8th (4 points) or less, and Perez finishes 4th (12 points) or less.
- If Verstappen wins the race without achieving the fastest lap, then Leclerc would have to finish 9th(2 points) or lower, and Perez finishes 4th(12 points) or lower without the fastest lap and 5th(11 points) with the fastest lap.
- George Russell would have to win the race for the chance of being still in contention. Any result other than P1 would put him out of view.
Suppose Verstappen does manage to wrap up the drivers’ championship in the Marina Bay circuit on 2nd October. In that case, he will become the only driver, besides Michael Schumacher and Nigel Mansell, who would have achieved this feat with five or more races remaining in the calendar season. Putting aside the permutations and probabilities, Verstappen has shown that he was in a class of his own this season. If Red Bull continues its run of form in the future, he will prove to be a very hard adversary for anyone to beat.
