The official telecast left no doubts in its chart: “Maximum Verstappen can’t be champion in Japan “. Commentators and journalists from all over the world, then, understood that the excerpt of the regulation would be used which speaks of an incomplete race – for suspension – and of a lower delivery of points because 75% would not have been completed due to the delay. in the beginning due to the rain. However, when the pilots saw the checkered flag, the FIA decided that it would award the normal score, which not even Red Bull imagined. Much less the two-time Formula 1 champion.
“Another 1-2 in Texas and … how many do you need? Two more points”I ask Helmut Markodirector of Red Bull, at the meeting with Verstappen e Czech Perez once the Japanese Grand Prix was over, and when the organizers dared to say that the Dutchman was the two-time world champion.
“I think they were wrong. I think I still have a point to make”Verstappen told the Mexican in his ear. “Yes, I think so”, replied the driver from Jalisco, to which the overwhelming leader of the championship replied: “Yes, right?” “It’s a better party in Austin,” Checo added as they chatted with the rest of the Austrian team who were on the other side of the fence, awaiting the podium celebration.
But, when they parted from the others, he turned to Verstappen and asked him: “So you’re not the champion?”. “No”, the Dutchman categorically surmised, “I still have one point to make because we didn’t do the fastest lap, right?”.
The confusion was total, despite the organizers already claiming that Verstappen was the new champion of the season, which the Dutchman would still have achieved in any of the other four races left, because his difference with Charles Leclerc It was overwhelming and his bi-league, a matter of time.
“I think it is a mistake that this course was not included after last year’s Spa problems. That the regulation, of course, has not been clarified. We got the strong impression that only 75% of the distance covered would add up all the points. So we thought we’d lose a point. But in the end, Checo’s maneuver on Charles gave Max the Scudetto. So you saw his surprise and that of the team. But what a wonderful surprise, ”Red Bull boss Christian Horner summed up on the AutoSport website after the Grand Prix.
Even his Ferrari couple, Mattia Binotto, said they were surprised: “We were confused and thought that not all the points would be awarded. So initially our calculations were that he was not yet world champion.. In the end a clarification was given which is fine. So I think you just have to accept it. It is so. He is world champion. It is quite clear. “
With 366 points after 12 wins in 18 races, Verstappen has become a resounding two-time Formula 1 champion. Although, thanks to his management this season, he deserved to celebrate him in another way. At least, more clearly and not with the confusion he has shown since he got out of the car after dominating in the rain at Suzuka, a circuit he had yet to conquer.
Source: Clarin
