Max Verstappen has revealed that he wasn’t sure he was the 2022 Formula 1 World Champion until he had confirmation from the FIA in the cooldown room before the podium proceedings.
As Verstappen crossed the line and took the chequered flag for the twelfth time this season, it looked like the Dutchman was going to have to wait until the United States Grand Prix to secure his second F1 title.
However, a five-second penalty for Charles Leclerc after an incident at the final corner with Sergio Perez dropped him into third place which gave Verstappen enough of a gap to mathematically wrap up the title with four races to run.
Another element of confusion was added when the FIA correctly applied the regulations to award full points for the shortened race as opposed to the reduced number of points that everyone was expecting.
“For me, during the race I had no clue what they were going to decide with the points,” Verstappen said. “The main plan was to win the race but once I crossed the line I was thinking: ‘that was an amazing race, good points again but I am not world champion yet’.
“Then I was doing my interview after the race and suddenly my mechanics started to cheer and I was like: ‘what is going on?’ I realised that Checo was second instead of Charles, but I didn’t know if it was full points, half points or 75 per cent points because you’re reading through the rules.
“Then Tom [Wood, FIA media representative] came up to me and said that I was world champion and then suddenly people were saying ‘no you still need a point’. So, it was a bit weird but eventually, we had enough points so then we were world champion again!”
The win in Japan marked Red Bull’s seventh win in a row as well as their fourth one-two finish of the season.
They can wrap up the Constructors’ Championship at the next round in Austin to become double world champions for the first time since 2013.
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