Verstappen is the 34th driver to win the world championship and will bring #1 back to the Formula 1 grid for the first time since fellow Red Bull champion Sebastian Vettel’s final title defence in 2014.
The Dutchman claims being champion makes no difference, that he won’t change. That’s in keeping with his public persona – he wouldn’t admit to the tweaks he made after some major errors early in 2018 – but, as Alex Kalinauckas shows in our cover article, that can’t be the case.
