Red Bull's Max Verstappen doesn't believe he has anything to prove this season despite winning the 2021 world championship in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen clinched his maiden F1 crown last December in Yas Marina by beating arch-rival Lewis Hamilton in a dramatic one-lap shootout produced by a late safety car period and the decisions of then F1 racing director Michael Masi who turned the race its head.
While the best driver on that day, namely Hamilton, did not win the race or the title, Verstappen believes that his track record over the course of the 2021 season - which included 10 wins and 18 poidum - make him a worthy reigning world champion, with nothing to prove.
"I proved that with the most wins, most pole and most laps led," he said on Friday in Bahrain.
"People forget that. They only look at Abu Dhabi apparently. We have more races than only Abu Dhabi in the season."
Thanks to Red Bull's pre-season form, Verstappen heads into this weekend's first race of 2022 with the status of favourite.
But the Dutchman reckons that he'll be hard-pressed to put as many wins on the board as last year given the wholesale changes to F1's technical rules.
"If you look at last season, we could have had more wins and more poles even," he said.
"But you need a really competitive car to be able to do that. It’s going to be really difficult to do something like that again.
"Of course, you always try and do better so I hope if we have a very competitive car again we can reach something similar."
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