Max Verstappen has 'a very big chance and a big opportunity' to defend his world title after 2022 F1 French GP, says former F1 engineer

Max Verstappen now enjoys a 63-point lead in the championship after his win in the 2022 F1 French GP. According to former F1 engineer Ernest Knoors, it is now up to Max Verstappen to lose the championship this season. Speaking to motorsport.com, Knoors said:

"In principle, it is now up to Max to lose the championship. He has a huge lead and if you also look at how the teams and the two drivers are doing. Then you have Max who drives sovereignly - has a car that he can handle well and that has been fairly reliable so far."

Contrasting that with Charles Leclerc, Knoors said:

"On the other hand, you have a rider who occasionally struggles with his own performance, who occasionally struggles with the performance of the team and with the reliability of the team. With those two lines, you can say that it's actually on Red Bull and Max Verstappen to lose the championship if nothing goes wrong at Red Bull."

Having said that, the former F1 engineer cautioned not to get carried away with the lead as anything can still happen in the championship:

"The World Cup is never decided until you are mathematically out of control. But based on the current form of the last five or six events, you can say that Max will have a very big chance and a big opportunity for his second title."

Max Verstappen's reflection on his seventh win of the season

Looking back at the race, Max Verstappen admitted he was looking forward to an interesting battle with Charles Leclerc at the end of the race. When Leclerc was out of contention, the Red Bull driver just managed his pace and brought the car home for the win.

"We had really good pace from the start. Although, following around here, the tyres overheated a lot so I couldn't really go for a move, but I stayed calm and stayed close. It was really unlucky for Charles and I'm glad he's okay - it could have been a really fun race because both cars were so quick."

"From there, I just concentrated on my own race and looked after the tyres. The pit lane is so long here, so that prevented us from having another pit stop. Today was a great day but there are plenty more races ahead of us and I just always aim for the most points possible. The fight is nowhere near over."

Verstappen now leads the championship by 63-points and is the runaway favorite for the title.