seasons where champions have little real challenge from a rival driver or team

Will Buxton, F1 Digital Presenter: In seasons where champions have little real challenge from a rival driver or team, the key factor to see in them is the ability to consistently seek the fight against themselves. It’s something which marked Lewis and Michael out in their eras of dominance, and it is a facet I have seen in Max this year. He has consistently looked at himself and worked at perfecting his craft, improving his performances week on week. He has refined almost every area of his racecraft, calming his temperament along the way, and whilst seeking that higher level also achieved a level of consistency he has never shown before. In almost every regard he has taken tremendous leaps towards becoming the complete driver.

Jolyon Palmer, Spec

ial Contributor: His relentless consistency. We all know that on his day Max is unstoppable, particularly in combination with the RB19, but what is more astonishing is how he’s not dropped the ball across the whole season in some seriously tricky situations. Winning Monaco in the pouring rain on slick tyres or controlling the race in Zandvoort amidst weather chaos were impressive. Add in numerous impressive pole laps when weather or yellow or red flags played their part. He’s become a winning machine in a year where we’ve had plenty of circumstantial jeopardy. Even Singapore was a decent recovery for him on a day where strategy couldn’t have played out any worse for Red Bull.