![]() However, it was during that same Monaco Grand Prix weekend in 2018 when Max Verstappen became the Formula 1 driver he is today. ![]() Verstappen’s troubles, lack of accountability, and stubbornness, meanwhile, got so bad to start 2018, that Red Bull were even rumored to be considering demoting their poster child - their golden boy - to Toro Rosso mid-season. While all of that was going on, Ricciardo, whom Verstappen was perfectly capable of matching and beating, went on to win two of the opening six races, asserting himself as an early season title contender alongside Vettel and Hamilton. He spun himself around in turn one during the Australian Grand Prix, crashed in turn three in Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying before clashing with Hamilton in the race and getting a puncture, went off-track battling Hamilton in China before taking out Sebastian Vettel in the hairpin, crashed with teammate Daniel Ricciardo in Azerbaijan, and then crashed again in Monaco’s third practice session, which caused him to miss qualifying and start the race from last on the grid. At the start of his fourth season in Formula 1 and his third for Red Bull, Verstappen had at least one incident in five of the opening six races. The problem was, these issues persisted for years. These errors were understandably thought to be just a classic case of a young driver learning tough lessons. He ended the year as the sport’s most penalized driver and had several “moving under braking” incidents with other drivers the following season, plus multiple incidents with his rivals at the front of the field. Look no further than in his first Monaco Grand Prix in 2015, when he had a spectacular crash in turn one after a divebomb attempt on the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. While he opened a lot of eyes in his first season with his daredevil overtakes and stunning P4 finishes in the Hungarian and United States Grands Prix before winning on his Red Bull debut in the Spanish Grand Prix the following season, he also made a ton of high-profile mistakes. These are all records that will likely be his forever. ![]() And in 2016, he became the youngest ever winner in just his first race with Red Bull. When he came into Formula 1 as a rookie in 2015 for Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso, now known as AlphaTauri, the Dutchman became the youngest Formula 1 driver ever and the youngest points scorer ever. Though he has always been seen as a future Formula 1 world champion dating back to his karting days, Max Verstappen, like every other young driver, had a lot of growing pains early on. The Dutchman is fast everywhere, walks the line of every boundary imaginable, is impossibly kind to his tires, and never makes a mistake.īut that hasn’t always been the case. It’s those traits that have allowed him to walk all over every teammate he’s had, particularly Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and now Sergio Perez, with ease, and it’s how he managed to out-duel Lewis Hamilton in his bid for an eighth world championship in 2021, despite the fact that it was his first crack at a title fight. His ability to drive a car on its nose at the absolute limit when nobody else in the same car can, his immunity to mistake-making pressure, his outright fearlessness, and his determination to settle for nothing less than P1 is unlike anybody the sport has ever seen. There is a lot that goes into his record-breaking success, aside from the near perfect Red Bull Racing machinery he has driven in that timeframe. It also doesn’t seem far-fetched to think that he could win each of the final eight races this year to end 2023 with 20 victories. ![]() He has 12 wins in just 14 races so far this year.Īt this point, it seems like a near certainty that he will break his own record of 15 wins in a season that he set just last season. In 2023, Max Verstappen looks set to become a triple world champion, having just broken the Formula 1 record for the most consecutive wins by a driver with his 10th. In that timeframe, he has won 37 times in 58 races and scored two world championships. For many fans, drivers, and teams alike, Max Verstappen has been the gold standard of Formula 1 greatness over the past two and a half years.
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