F1 champion Verstappen was looking at the RB18 at the start of 2022: ‘The car felt heavy’

Lars Levtenk

Tuesday, November 29, 2022 12:01 – Last update: 12:06

Max Verstappen still can’t believe that despite a very poor start to 2022, he has become world champion for the second time. The Dutch player can explain why he looked at the RB18 at the start of 2022 and why things have improved as the season progresses.

Verstappen finally becomes a two-time world champion in 2022, and in dominant fashion. The Dutchman has won 15 of 22 races in 2022 and could already be crowned world champion after the Japanese Grand Prix. However, it was not so easy at the start of 2022. During two of the first three races, Verstappen dropped out, so that the gap to Charles Leclerc had already increased to 46 points. Verstappen himself didn’t believe in the title after the Australian Grand Prix.

Also interesting: Verstappen has a lot of respect for Alonso: “He’s one of the best drivers ever”

beginning

Not even the Dutchman could see Verstappen having such a dominant season despite such a modest start. He tells this in the documentary Picture Perfect by across play. “Especially after the start we started, I didn’t expect it, of course. The whole team is very happy of course. I know that years like this don’t come so quickly. Before I started this season I had a total of twenty wins and now I have 15 in a season. This Incredible.

Weight

Verstappen believes that, in addition to the failures, the difficult start was also related to the extra weight the RB18 had to deal with. “In winter testing, the car was still a bit heavy, so it didn’t feel quite the way I wanted it to. I couldn’t get everything I wanted out of it. I knew it would come when the weight came out. You saw we were competitive even with the added weight, Which is positive.”