Defending champion Max Verstappen just wants to 'win more' this season

By Issy Ronald and Amanda Davies, CNN

Updated 1447 GMT (2247 HKT) May 6, 2022

Defending champion Max Verstappen currently sits second in the drivers' standings behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

(CNN)Last year, following a season-long duel that ended with himself and Lewis Hamilton level on points ahead of the final Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was crowned world champion in Abu Dhabi in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Although Hamilton had built up a commanding lead, a late safety car effectively restarted the race and Verstappen was able to overtake the Brit on newer, faster tires, securing his maiden drivers' championship.Despite achieving a lifelong goal and expending huge amounts of emotional energy, Verstappen's trademark competitive nature seems undiminished and he remains focused simply on winning races. «It has nothing to do with confidence or because I'm world champion now I finally feel like I belong here or whatever,» Verstappen tells CNN Sport's Amanda Davies ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. «For me, that doesn't matter. I'm just back and I want to try and win more.»I already said that if I would win a championship, my goal in F1 is achieved," he says. «And anything else that comes after is just a bonus and I will enjoy it.Read More»But it's not like I won a championship now, so let's go party here, let's go party there and not be motivated and stuff. I think my motivation is even higher now to come back and try to achieve that feeling or try to feel the same thing again."A new startVerstappen's title defense takes place in an F1 season that is already proving remarkably different to recent editions. For the first time in eight years, Mercedes are no longer the holders of the drivers' championship — a position