F1: Max Verstappen Will Start 2022 Season With No. 1 On His Red Bull

Newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen will run number 1 on his Red Bull car when the 2022 season starts from his current 33 number. This will be the first time since 2014, a car will be running number 1 when Sebastian Vettel ran the number by virtue of being the defending world champion at Red Bull for winning the 2013 season. The dutchman has stated earlier that he was considering running the number 1 on his car before he won the world championship at the controversial Abu Dhabi finale, but now that he has won the title, he has reiterated that. 

At the end of the 2014 season when Lewis Hamilton was crowned world champion, the Briton chose not to run the number 1 figure on his car even though as the world champion he was entitled to that number. Instead, he chose to run number 44 which was his number even in this season when he was the defending world champion. In 2017, when Hamilton wasn't the defending world champion having lost the title to his former teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016, the number 1 figure again didn't emerge as the German driver chose to retire from F1 at the end of the 2016 season with immediate effect. 

Max Verstappen is one of the youngest world champions in the history of F1  AFP

That meant the F1 grid didn't have the defending world champion, and Hamilton ran his 44 number on his Mercedes. Hamilton has often talked about having the hunter's mentality while entering a world championship battle even if he is the defending world champion which is why he doesn't use the number 1 tag on his car. For Max Verstappen, however, having the opportunity to have number 1 on his car, is seemingly a big deal and is one of the things that excites him the most about winning the 2021 crown. 

Across the season, Verstappen led more than 600 laps, was on the podium 18 times, more than any F1 driver in a single season, and won 10 races. He even managed 11 pole positions which makes him a very impressive world champion, but next year, the grid will be reset as there are sweeping new aerodynamic rules coming into effect for which teams like Ferrari and McLaren have been preparing for years. So it will be interesting to see if he is able to defend his crown as even Mercedes was largely developing its 2022 car and its driver pairing gets a huge upgrade with the addition of George Russell in the team alongside the legendary Hamilton.