In Formula One, parallel to the cars, there goes luck, unfortunates, and curses. For those who believe in curses, it is a big matter of concern why each driver who starts the season’s opening race victorious ends up losing the championship.
Team Red Bull was glorious during the time of Sebastian Vettel. With the four-time world champion, Red Bull won the season opener race just once in 2011, in Melbourne. And after that, nobody in Red Bull dared to overcome the curse except for Max Verstappen.
With Vertsappen’s win in the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull got Vettel back. Max Verstappen is breaking records; he already became a two-time world champion and broke Schumacher’s record for most race wins in a season. And both he did in the presence of two legends: Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Again in this season, Max Verstappen is dominating with last year’s pace.
What CURSE Do They Talk About In Formula One?
Now the question is will Verstappen be able to surpass the curse, winning the season’s first race and the world title too? It may sound ridiculous to some. So, let’s see how it is even a curse! In 2017, we saw Sebastian Vettel winning the season’s first race at the Australian Grand Prix. What a grand Ferrari victory it was; they started hoping to see the championship trophy. But in the end, the Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton got the trophy.
Next comes 2018. There he goes again; Sebastian Vettel makes Ferrari victorious in the season opener. But what happened, in the end, was Lewis Hamilton became the fifth world champion, surpassing Vettel in championship numbers. The point to be noted here is Vettel won the first race but lost the championship.
Let’s talk about 2019. You might be aware that Valtteri Bottas started a great season for Mercedes with the season’s first win at the first race. He won the first race of the season, but as it’s a curse, he got defeated by Lewis Hamilton in the final driver’s standing in Austin. It remained a controversial season win for Hamilton.
What Could Stop Max Verstappen From Winning The 2023 Championship?
Besides, in 2020, repeating history, Valtteri Bottas won the season’s first race again and remained a loser in the championship. The point to be noted here again is Lewis Hamilton, who had been the consecutive winner, did not win any of the season opener races since 2015. In the Turkish Grand Prix 2020, Lewis Hamilton became the seventh-goddamn-world champion.
Speaking of 2021, Lewis Hamilton, unfortunately, was caught by the curse. He won the season’s first race but lost the last one. This prevented him from breaking Michael Schumacher’s record. The way Lewis Hamilton was deprived of his eighth title is just an example proving that the curse has power. In 2022 again, Charles Leclerc started the season strongly for the Scuderia team, claiming four of the initial races.
Everybody thought Ferrari’s era was back and Leclerc would win. But look who won, Max Verstappen. This year, Max Verstappen won the season’s opener Bahrain Grand Prix. Let’s see if this one curse will get consumed by Verstappen or if he gets consumed by it.
