The Flying Dutchman has won a few races this year. The successes of the number one Red Bull they amount to 13, against the two of his partner Sergio Perezdefinitely more in crisis than last season considering the superiority of the medium. The dominance imposed by Max would allow him to play for a concrete matchpoint already in Qatar weekend. Verstappen has a chance to win the championship di Formula 1 for the third time even before the Sunday race. Let's see what combinations would guarantee Max Verstappen to become world champion in that day lusail.
Verstappen's season screams 'legend'
Thirteen victories, nine pole positions, seven fastest laps and six races still to go. What can break, Max, breaks. In Italy the number 1 took home the tenth consecutive victory, re-establishing the fees for evaluating any domain. The streak was then interrupted by Ferrari's first and only victory of the season: that of Sainz in Singapore. With his 400 points scored so far, Max has made the biggest contribution in the conquest of the constructors' title by the winged bull team. The victory of the championship with still six races to go would equal the record established by the Kaiser way back in 2002. Let's look specifically at the combinations that would allow number 33 to watch the traffic lights go out for the Sunday race with the crown already on his head.
For a handful of points: the combinations to see Verstappen world champion in Qatar
Max Verstappen has an easy but not obvious task if he wants to become world champion already on Saturday: take home three more points than Perez, currently second in the drivers' standings. Indeed, the Dutchman would grab the crown by winning the sprint with Perez 4th or worse. If Max were to finish second, Perez should do no better than fifth place. So on until the last possible combination, which would see Max sixth with Perez outside the points.
In fact, remember that Sprint race scoring follows a linear scale, starting from the eight points guaranteed to the winner, up to the single point for the eighth place. According to these reasons, Max couldn't celebrate finishing seventh, as he would only gain two points over his teammate if he did not finish in the top eight. The task for Max is the usual one, to ride faster than the others, and he has carried it out perfectly on every occasion so far. The real unknown will probably be the Mexican's performance. Checo demonstrated that he knows how to make up for himself in the race, but if he were to achieve - as has happened on several occasions - a poor placing on the grid, his chances of recovering would significantly decrease given the brevity of the sprint. As usual, the track will do the talking, but the chances of seeing Max on the roof of the world before Sunday are more than concrete given the conditions.
