Verstappen started his second title defenc🀅e with a dominant drive to win in Bahrain for the first time in his F1 career.

Remarkably, it was the first time Red Bull has won a season-opener since 2011, when 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sebastian Vettel was victorious in Melbourne.

Red🦂 Bull are the class of the field, with their race pace nearly one-second pౠer lap faster than their nearest challenger.

Thus, Verstappen is the heavy favourite to take the titl𒁃e in F1 2023, but there’s one curse he needs to b⛄e aware of.

Since 2017, the driver that has won the opening race of𝔉 the season hasn’t gone on to win the drivers’ title.

2017

Vettel won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but it was 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton💛 who ultimately won t⭕he title with three races to go.

2018

History repeated itself in 2018 as Vettel made the most of a fortunate Virtual Safety Car to get ahead of Hamilton. The Mercedes driver would ta🏅ke the title in Mexico.

2019

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Valtteri Bottas dominat♛ed☂ the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, however, he couldn’t maintain it as Hamilton won his sixth title in Austin.

2020

Again, it was Bottas who started the year strongly for Mercedes, but Hamilton hit back, ▨taking the title in Turkey.

2021

Hamilton would win his first season-opener since 2015 ahead of Verstappen. He would controve𓂃rsially miss out on the title to Verstappen in Abu Dꦬhabi.

2022

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc kicked off F1’s new e𝓰ra strongly with a win in Bahrain. Ferrari imploded as Verstappen ran away with the title, taking his second crown in Japan.