After an exceptional season, Max Verstappen received another honor by being named Sportsman of the Year by NOS.
With a record 15 wins and another world championship to put in his very large trophy cabinet, the 2022 season has arguably been Verstappen’s best in Formula 1 so far.
He overcame early reliability issues to retake a lead from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and although the title wasn’t officially confirmed until the Japanese Grand Prix, the writing had been on the wall for much longer than that.
While enjoying some well-deserved downtime after the eventful season, Verstappen has also collected numerous accolades for his achievements, including the official trophy for his title win as well as the International Racing Driver’s Award from the year at the Autosport Awards.
On Wednesday, he added another accolade to his name when he was named Sportsman of the Year in his native Netherlands.
NOS, which is one of the public broadcasters in the Netherlands and broadcasts the races, named Verstappen the winner after a title win which they described as won with “a great case of force majeure”.
Verstappen was not present to collect the award, so his sister Victoria replaced him, collecting the trophy from former Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst.
It is the third time Verstappen has won the award, having also done so in 2021 and 2016. Only judoka Anton Geesink, former skater Ard Schenk and former turner Epke Zonderland have received the award more.
After the award, a short video was shown of former F1 world champions and some of the current crop congratulating Verstappen on his win.
“I just want to congratulate you on your tremendous success over the past few years,” said Sir Jackie Stewart as Damon Hill joked that while Verstappen thinks he’s a fan of Lewis Hamilton, the world champion 1996 said the Dutchman had ‘driven beautifully this year’. ”.
Another former world champion in Emerson Fittipaldi praised Verstappen and said winning a second time was much sweeter, a subject he is familiar with having succeeded in 1971 and 1974.
Former Red Bull man Mark Webber said he hadn’t seen an entry into Formula 1 like Verstappen’s “in a long time” and praised him for the past two years which he called a “phenomenal”.
Nico Hülkenberg also displayed an impressive knowledge of Dutch to congratulate Verstappen.
Verstappen’s trophy was accompanied by the Sportswoman of the Year award to Dutch speed skater Irene Schouten who won three gold medals and a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.
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