The odds seem to be entirely on Max Verstappen’s favor. Indeed, after days of speculations, earlier this week it was announced that the reigning World Champion will remain at Red Bull until 2028, with a whopping £40million-a-year contract extension.

No doubt he appeared pretty relaxed during his exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, held in Barcelona during the first round of pre-season testing.

Despite the astronomically high wage he will be earning for the upcoming seasons, the 23-year-old Champion remains very much the unassuming and unvarnished Dutchman who partied away on the Abu Dhabi harbour after his last-lap bravura – and highly debated victory – against Lewis Hamilton.

“I believe I deserve to be world champion,”

Declared Verstappen, also pointing out the fact that in 2021 he led most laps (652 to Hamilton’s 297), won most races (10 to 8) and secured most poles (10 to five). So, from his perspective, the contentious conclusion to Formula One’s longest and most demanding, Covid-ridden season was merely a climax rather than a dishonouring statement on his right to wear the celebratory number 1 on his car.

When asked, he declared he hasn’t been in touch with Hamilton over the winter.

‘No. There is no reason to. We haven’t seen each other since just after the end of the race. It is fine. We are racers and we move on.’

Of course, he admits, Hamilton and Mercedes’ fury is understandable. They blame – former – race director Michael Masi, now severely fired, for his unusual call to restart the race without all the lapped cars having unlapped themselves. Yet, according to Verstappen, the Australian was not biased. He was trying in the heat of battle to squeeze in one final lap rather than allow the championship to end under a safety car.

In conclusion, credit to Red Bell for putting Verstappen on new tyres, granting him an essential speed advantage and credit, also, to Verstappen for skilfully leaping on the previously dominant Hamilton earlier than anyone expected.

Verstappen says: ‘A championship is won over the season, right? Not because of the last lap. Some people just look at that race because of the tension building up around it and think the outcome was wrong.

“But if you look at the year, the title would normally have been decided way earlier. It is just that I was taken out twice and had some bad luck with tyre blowouts.

“It came down to the last race because of all that misfortune. And look at the stats. That usually gives you a picture of how the season went”.

“I can understand with how Abu Dhabi played out that he [Lewis Hamilton] was upset and not happy with it but, as I say, you have to look at the championship in general”.

“It was a crazy and epic season. I don’t care if people try to take the shine off it. It doesn’t matter. The losing side always will complain, but the winning side thinks about it differently.”

The Dutchman also spoke about Micheal Masi, who was severely removed from his spot of the race director and will be replaced by Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich.

“What happened to Michael is very unfair,’ says Verstappen. ‘The FIA were pressurized (by Mercedes) into making a decision. I wrote a message to him about it.

“I said we didn’t always agree on everything but that’s racing. We always wanted to make the sport better as a whole. Nobody is perfect, but what was always brought up was that we needed to race. We needed that mindset and he had that.

“For Michael to jump in after Charlie (Whiting, the long-term race director who died suddenly on the eve of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix) was a difficult task.

“Everyone needs help. I have the whole team around me. Maybe Michael needed more people around him but he never got the opportunity. They really put him in the ground.

Even after becoming world champion, Verstappen said he has the same level of motivation.

“I will always want to win,” he says, admitting the hectic week leading into the tiebreaker in the desert still makes him shiver.

“But the desperate “must win” is gone. It doesn’t mean I am less motivated. I have the same level of motivation, maybe more, to do it again.

“It feels nice. It is a relaxation. There is less of a rush. I was already in my seventh season. I had never really had a shot at the title before. I had my first chance and, of course, I wanted desperately to do it. Winning a championship is one of those things that doesn’t happen often. It may never happen again, who knows?”

The Dutch driver admitted he’d like to “do that” again, but the right mixture of great car and good luck are necessary.

“I remember when I was watching TV when I was go-karting as a boy and there was a podium celebration and the national anthem was playing and my dad (former F1 driver Jos) said to me, “That’s where we need to go”, and I said “I’d like that”.

“Now I need some luck, the right car, to do it again”.