SHOCKING! Did Ferrari gift Max Verstappen and Red Bull the title this season?

Max Verstappen sealed his second World Drivers' Championship title with a win at the 2022 F1 Japanese GP. It was truly a culmination of a tenacious season by the Red Bull driver, who was on the back foot in the championship after just three races into the season. So much so that the driver was a whopping 46 points behind Charles Leclerc after three races. From that point onwards, we are just 18 races into the season and we have the title wrapped up, with Verstappen leading Leclerc by 114 points.

That is a swing of a whopping 170 points in 15 races (almost 12 points a race). While the season has featured some impressive and consistent driving from Max Verstappen, what it has also featured is a dreadful campaign from Ferrari that has been filled with mistakes. It's safe to say that while Red Bull has been a consistent juggernaut picking up points wherever possible, Ferrari has been wasteful to a large extent (Charles Leclerc is guilty of it as well as he's made his share of mistakes as well).

There was a time early in the season when Ferrari was the best car on the grid. What if it had not made so many mistakes or had so many mitigating factors working against it? Where would Ferrari find itself in the championship battle?

More importantly, did Ferrari's operational inefficiency (and Charles Leclerc's crashes) gift the title to Max Verstappen? To find out, we need to take a look at the number of points that Max Verstappen gained (and Leclerc lost) because of either Ferrari's reliability issues and strategic errors early in the season, or the mistakes made by Leclerc during the season.

Once we're able to calculate the number of points lost by Leclerc and gained by Verstappen, we will have a revised points standings that could show how close the battle could have been had Ferrari and its driver not made that many mistakes.

So, without further ado, let's get straight to it and find out whether Ferrari gifted the title to Max Verstappen.

---

Was Max Verstappen gifted the 2022 F1 title by Ferrari?

Points lost by Leclerc and gained by Verstappen

F1 Imola GP (Leclerc = -7)

At Imola, Max Verstappen won the race and was dominant up front. For Leclerc, however, it was a disappointing race. He spun off the track while trying to attack Sergio Perez and a turned a P3 result into a P6. Instead of securing 15 points for a P3, Leclerc ended up with 8 points for a P6 and lost 7 points in that race.

F1 Spanish GP (Leclerc = -25, Verstappen = +7)

Barcelona was a heartbreak for Charles. He was cruising towards another win in the lead of the race and suffered a PU failure, resulting in a DNF. Max Verstappen benefitted from it and turned a P2 finish into a P1.

F1 Monaco GP (Leclerc = -13, Verstappen = +3)

If Ferrari had not messed up their strategy, Leclerc would have won the race while Verstappen would have been P4. In the end, Leclerc lost 13 points while Verstappen gained 3.

F1 Azerbaijan GP (Leclerc = -18)

Charles Leclerc was very much in contention to at least finish P2 in the race, but when the engine went up in flames, a podium went begging.

F1 Canadian GP (Leclerc = -8)

If it wasn't for the back of the grid start incurred due to Ferrari's power unit reliability issues, Leclerc had the pace to fight Verstappen. Even though the win would have been tough, a P2 result was surely on the cards.

F1 British GP (Leclerc = -13)

Keeping Verstappen's own incident aside, this was a race of despair for Leclerc. The driver should have been a comfortable winner of the race but a mismanaged race left him finishing P4 and losing 13 potential points.

F1 French GP (Leclerc = -18)

This was the race where Leclerc binned the car into the wall. He was leading the race at that point and the battle between him and Verstappen was going to be interesting, as it did appear that the Red Bull driver had pace in reserve. At worst, this would have been a P2 finish and 18 points that went begging for Leclerc.

F1 Hungarian GP (Leclerc = -10)

Many fans feel that Ferrari cost Leclerc a win in Hungary. This is however not true as once Verstappen triggered the undercut, either Leclerc pitted for Hards and came out in front of him, or he extended his stint and finally pitted for Softs. Either way, Max Verstappen was always coming through. Having said that, a P2 result would have been on the cards if Ferrari had not gambled on the hard tires.

F1 Belgian GP (Leclerc = -7)

At Spa, Leclerc was forced to start the race from the back of the grid. Looking at the speed of Red Bull that weekend, the best result the Ferrari driver could have hoped for was a P3 and 15 points. With a P6 finish, the driver scored only 8 points and hence lost 7 more points.

---

Conclusion

Looking at the total points lost all season, Charles Leclerc lost a total of 119 points while Max Verstappen gained a total of 10 points. An overall points swing of 129 points took place from Charles Leclerc to Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen holds a 114 point advantage over Charles Leclerc at this stage of the season. Taking the 129 points swing against Leclerc into consideration, if Ferrari had not lost these points to Verstappen, Leclerc would have been leading the championship by 15 points at this stage of the season with four races to go.

Looking at these staggering numbers, it's safe to say that Ferrari gifted the title to Max Verstappen on a platter this season. Sure, there are other caveats like Red Bull's reliability issues, but one thing is clear: the championship would have been far more interesting if Ferrari had performed better.