Horner saw the same thing happen to Verstappen in 2022 that happened to Vettel

In 2021, Verstappen won the world title in the final round of the last race of the championship at the expense of Lewis Hamilton. Whereas there was a lot of controversy surrounding that final in 2021, Verstappen has now won his title four races before the end of the championship.

Pressure on Verstappen

''Securing the title four races before the end is a tremendous achievement. Max was like from another planet this year. He's dominating this world championship, he's driving with incredible maturity,'' his team boss waxes lyrical at Speedweek.com. According to Horner, securing the world title in 2021 also had a big impact on this season.

''Last season felt like a heavyweight fight between two titans. After Max finally prevailed, a large part of the pressure of expectations fell away from him, which I had experienced before after Sebastian Vettel's first title.''

Now that that pressure is off, Verstappen can enjoy racing more and victories seem to come even easier. In 2022, Mercedes was also not around to compete with the Dutchman and over a full year, Ferrari also fell short of providing real resistance.