Red Bull secured the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship last time out in Japan thanks largely to a solo effort from Max Verstappen and now the Dutchman is within touching distance of securing a third successive Drivers’ title in Qatar.
Verstappen has been in dominant form from the get-go in 2023 and has already won 13 Grands Prix, including a record 10 straight wins from Miami to Monza.
Verstappen’s points haul of 400 is such that he’d lead the Constructors’ Championship single-handedly, with Red Bull’s closest challenger Mercedes still only on 305 points.
Red Bull and Verstappen have been the dominant force in F1 throughout the year, with Sergio Perez (2) and Carlos Sainz (1) being the only other drivers to win a race in 2023.
Despite his struggles for consistency, Perez remains Verstappen’s closest contender with 223 points, a seismic 177 behind Verstappen.
With six grands prix and three Sprint Races remaining, there is a total of 180 points left on the table, meaning the Dutchman can wrap up the title in Saturday’s Sprint event in Qatar.
The shortened race format allows Verstappen to take title glory a day earlier than usual, as he needs just three points in the Sprint to achieve a third straight championship.
The odds of Perez extending the inevitable result beyond Qatar are slim. Even if he wins the Sprint, collecting eight points in the process and Verstappen fails to score, the Dutch ace can simply cruise home to an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s full-length grand prix to take the title.
With a total of 34 points on offer in Qatar (eight for the Sprint victory, 26 for the grand prix win and the fastest lap), Perez would need to shrink Verstappen’s margin out in front of the title race to 145 points, with Verstappen able to seal top honours on count back of race wins if the margin was that of the 146 points remaining post-Qatar.
With Verstappen’s third title looking increasingly likely to be secured on a Saturday, the Dutchman will join an elite club of drivers to have won at least three titles.
That includes Michael Schumacher (7), Lewis Hamilton (7), Juan Manuel Fangio (5), Alain Prost (4), Sebastian Vettel (4), Ayrton Senna (3), Nelson Piquet (3), Niki Lauda (3), Jackie Stewart (3) and Jack Brabham (3).
Verstappen will also join the exclusive club of drivers to have secured three successive titles, which currently includes Schumacher, who scored five straight from 2000 to 2005, Hamilton, who scored four straight from 2017 to 2020, Vettel, who won four straight titles between 2010 and 2013 and Fangio, who won four titles on the bounce from 1954 to 1957.
But, beyond three-time title winners and those to have won three in succession, Verstappen is also headed to join the peculiar ranks of drivers to have won the F1 Drivers’ Championship on a Saturday.
Piquet’s first title in 1981 was won on a Saturday (in Las Vegas of all places, which returns to the F1 calendar after several decades with another Saturday race), as was his second in 1983 at Kyalami.
Keke Rosberg’s 1982 title win also came in a Saturday race in Las Vegas, Nevada and the likes of Fangio (Britain, 1955), Brabham (Sebring, 1959) and Graham Hill (South Africa, 1962) also took the title on the sixth day of the week.
