Does Verstappen have any weaknesses left?

Having extended his Formula 1 points lead with victory in Canada, Max Verstappen has raised his game further following his 2021 title triumph. Even on the days where Red Bull appears to be second best to Ferrari, Verstappen is getting the most out of the car in each race. So, does he have any weaknesses that his title rivals can exploit?

Matt Kew Jun 22, 2022, 8:28 AM

Upd: Jun 22, 2022, 9:26 AM

Simply put, it was a virtuoso performance from Max Verstappen in Canada. Although grid penalties meant it wasn’t chief rival Charles Leclerc breathing down his neck in qualifying or the grand prix to heighten the pressure to the extreme, the defending champion nevertheless spent much of his time at Montreal dabbling with perfection.

The latest of his 26 Formula 1 triumphs, which places Verstappen ninth on the all-time winners list, moved the Dutch racer 46 points clear of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, with Leclerc another three adrift. For Ferrari and Perez, who retired with a hydraulics failure last Sunday, it’s not enough to hope that Verstappen hits further reliability trouble to go with his early-season DNFs in Bahrain and Australia. They need to pinpoint and, more critically, exploit any Verstappen deficits if they are to take the title to the wire.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.