'Whoever wants to challenge Verstappen in 2023 will have to step up a gear'

The Mexican Grand Prix will not go down in the books as one of the most exciting, but that does not detract from Verstappen's performance. Palmer believes the Dutchman deserves all the praise for the way he handled the pressure in the early stages of the race, and then managed his medium tyres perfectly.

Verstappen 'the complete package'

Palmer sees Verstappen as 'the complete package' at the moment, stating that the Red Bull Racing driver has driven almost perfectly in the current Formula 1 season. In doing so, he points to races where Verstappen had to come from further afield but was still in the lead within a few laps. He also mentions his comeback after the poor pit stop in Austin, as well as those after his own mistakes in Barcelona and Hungary.

"Of the six races Verstappen hasn’t won this year, he would have either won or finished on the podium in all of them were it not for reliability issues, damage at Silverstone and a rare qualifying team blunder in Singapore," Palmer explains in his column for Formula1.com. He points to the Monaco Grand Prix as "the only mediocre weekend" Verstappen had in terms of performance.

Verstappen's opponents will therefore have a tough task ahead of them if they want to make things difficult for the world champion. "For those hoping to take the fight to Verstappen next year, they’ll need to be either raising their own game, or banking on the Dutchman taking his eye off the ball after securing title number two, because there’s not many chinks in his armour at the moment," concludes Palmer.