Max Verstappen on verge of joining elite club with F1 title in Singapore

Ever confident in his own abilities, Max Verstappen has enjoyed a burgeoning sense of self-belief since taking his first Formula One championship last season. Yet surely even he could not have expected to exert quite the iron grip he has exercised this year in a title defence that could be wrapped up this weekend in Singapore.

The Dutchman and his Red Bull team have been so dominant this season the championship is in his hands and he could clinch it at Marina Bay on Sunday to join a rarefied group of F1 drivers. With a 116-point lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Verstappen will be world champion if he wins and takes the fastest lap, as long as Leclerc finishes no higher than eighth and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez does not make the podium.

If he closes it out he will have done so with a full five races to go, the same buffer Nigel Mansell managed for Williams in 1992. Michael Schumacher is the only other driver to take the title so early, doing so with six races remaining in 2002, almost indecently as early as July, while he also completed it with four to spare in 2001 and 2004. Vettel also managed it with four to go in 2011, in a Red Bull as dominant as the 2022 version.

In 1992 Mansell’s Williams FW14B, “Red Five” as his car was known, was designed by Adrian Newey, the architect of Red Bull’s success, demonstrating a touch for making quick and often beautiful cars he has never lost. Mansell put it to use with devastating effect. Opening with five straight wins, in the 11th of 16 meetings at Hungary in August he sealed the championship.

Mansell was dominant and closed with nine wins that year, seeing off Ayrton Senna, Riccardo Patrese and a young Schumacher in the process. Mansell concluded his F1 career with