F1 news: Max Verstappen reflects on his worst race weekends of 2022

Despite not finishing in Bahrain or Australia in the opening rounds, the World Champion opted for Monaco, Silverstone and Singapore as three of his worst weekends of the year.

Qualifying in Monaco saw Verstappen down in fourth after a spin for team-mate Sergio Perez halted him from completing a final flying lap - something which is believed to have caused in-team tension between the drivers later in the season.

His race at Silverstone was hindered after running over debris early on, causing floor damage and dropping him to the lower reaches of the points after running in the lead, before his car was later under-fuelled in Singapore qualifying in a move which left him on the fourth row of the grid.

But given how well his season went overall, there were slim pickings for his low points of the 2022 season.

"Monaco, Silverstone... I would go for Singapore. That was just a terrible weekend, everything went wrong," Verstappen explained on Viaplay's F1 Talks, quoted on his official website.

"From the set-up of the car on Friday, the issues with running the car, not enough fuel in qualifying and then everything went wrong in the race. Sometimes you just have those weekends. Singapore was a weekend to forget."

Verstappen went on to win 15 of the 22 rounds of the 2022 season, a record number of victories for any driver in a single Formula 1 season, eventually taking the title by 146 points and with several races to spare.

His two consecutive titles combined with 35 career victories already put him among the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history, but he does not feel that life is too different for him now than it was a few years ago.

"In general, not much," he responded when asked what has changed for him since becoming World Champion.

"Only that need to win a championship was gone, because I felt I had achieved all the goals in Formula 1.

"As I said back then, anything that comes after is a bonus. That probably takes a bit of the pressure off, but don't confuse that with losing a bit of motivation.

"Once you're at the top and have that winning feeling, you want to keep that. I know that every time I'm on a race track I switch on and I want to win.

"I work really hard for that. When I get back home afterwards, it's a bit more relaxed because of what we've already achieved in Formula 1."