The 10 steps Ferrari needs to take to be a real F1 challenger

Max Verstappen most likely would have won the 2022 Formula 1 world championship even without Ferrari’s blunders and miscues. The team has much to work on if it’s to mount a challenge in the years ahead

"Max has just been incredible and it's a title fully deserved. On our side, we'll try to push for the last four races this season to improve as a team and to hopefully put in more of a challenge next year…"

Charles Leclerc was magnanimous in defeat to Max Verstappen after the Japanese Grand Prix, accepting that his Ferrari squad had ultimately been well beaten in the first season of Formula 1's new ground-effects era. But he'd already been making similar noises in Singapore the previous week. Leclerc, after taking his ninth and most recent pole of 2022, had said that "it's a matter of time before Max gets his title", and so it proved to be. The Monegasque's mindset had already shifted.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.