After taking his 15th win of the season in Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen says Red Bull’s season-long success will be difficult to repeat.
Verstappen comfortably won the season finale, making a one-stop strategy work to lead from light to flag.
“It was a good race,” he said after exiting RB18. “It was a tire management issue. I think we took good care of the mids and then on the hard tires he managed really well from lap one to the end.
“To win this again is unbelievable. “A 15th win of the season is unbelievable.”
He would finish the season with 454 points – the most by a driver in a single season – 146 points ahead of second-placed Charles Leclerc.
“It was great to work with the whole team and to be able to achieve something like this this year,” Verstappen said.
“I know it will be difficult to repeat something like that, but it’s a great motivation to try again next year and do well.”
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Teammate Sergio Perez, who was beaten to second place in the drivers’ title by Leclerc, said he believed Red Bull had yet to find the extra performance. “We had really good times, great fights.
“In terms of managing the tires in the race, I’ve struggled a bit with the tires this year, so hopefully that’s something we can improve on for next year and be a bit stronger overall.”
“I’m really happy,” said Leclerc, of running a one-stop strategy and finishing second in both the race and the standings. Ferrari has said it should push the end of the season to 2023.
“I hope we can take a step forward next year to fight for the championship,” Leclerc said. But considering where we were last year, it’s a big step forward.
“I think they improved towards the end of the season with the strategy that worked with the race pace because we came into Sunday and thought we were going to fight a bit more. But we’ll be pushing through the winter break to catch up a bit.
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2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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