Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates in parc ferme during the F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka International Racing Course on September 24, 2023 in Suzuka, Japan. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
The 2024 Formula One season has kicked off and it looks like Max Verstappen is picking up where he left off last season. Verstappen claimed the first pole position of the season at Bahrain, beating the Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, by 0.228s. It seems like the start of another dominant season for the Dutch driver.
This has sparked one of the most frequently asked questions in the recent years of F1: “Why is Max Verstappen so good?”
A Natural
Verstappen’s talent behind the wheel has stood out ever since he got in a kart. He holds many karting championships, such as the South Garda Winter Cup in KF2 class and WSK Euro and Master Series in KZ class. In 2014, he moved to Formula 3, where he won 10 races, placing himself third overall.
His talent attracted the attention of Red Bull Racing, who had been tracking his progress ever since his karting years. Franz Tost, former team boss of Toro Rosso, reminisced about one of Max’s best races in Formula 3.
“I remember Max at the Norisring [circuit in Germany] at 16 years old. It was wet and he was one-and-a-half to two seconds faster than anyone else. I said all other drivers should give back their licenses, the only driver in this field is Max Verstappen,” Tost told BBC Sport.
Verstappen got into Formula 1 in 2015 with Toro Rosso, becoming the youngest driver in the history of the sport, as he was just 17 years old.
Verstappen’s age raised concerns in the F1 community regarding his readiness. The FIA even introduced a new age requirement of 18 the next year. However, the Dutch driver quickly proved everyone wrong. He became the youngest F1 point scorer in just his second race and secured a fourth place finish in both Hungary and the United States, an outstanding result for a small team.
In his second year in F1, he was promoted to Red Bull after the team decided to demote a struggling Daniil Kyvat. This move was shocking and heavily questioned, but once again, Verstappen shut down all the doubts on track. An 18 year-old Verstappen won his debut race with Red Bull, becoming the youngest F1 race winner at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 30, 2023 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
Consistent Perfection
F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. If drivers want to succeed, they need to deliver constant results and make the most of what they have, which is exactly what Max Verstappen does. It is extremely difficult to think of a race in which he was off-pace or did not give the most he could.
Take 2022 as an example, which was not Max’s most dominant season, as he had to fight Leclerc for the championship. That year, even after two DNFs due to reliability issues, he managed to win 15 out of 22 races. 2021 is another perfect example of a year in which Max maximized the potential of the car, battling the 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, and claiming the championship on the last lap of the season.
“He’s just very complete, he very hardly makes mistakes,” Sergio Perez, Max’s current teammate, told The Athletic. “He’s able to be at the limit for a very long time during a weekend.”
A Driver In His Own League
Max has always shown a huge passion for the sport. Ever since his karting years, when alongside his father and former F1 driver, Jos Verstappen, he always worked hard towards F1.
With the most wins in a season and three consecutive world championships, no driver in the F1 grid is operating at Verstappen’s level. At just 25 years of age, Verstappen is dominating, making this year the “Verstappen era”, as Christian Horner, Red Bulls’ team principal, remarked about Verstappen’s dominance.
“He’s operating at an insanely high level and with the benefit of experience now”, Horner argues. “I mean, he’s always had more speed and great natural talent, but the capacity he has in the car to be following the race, to be thinking about aspects that are way beyond, you know, the normal sphere is hugely, hugely impressive and I think that you know, he’s just taken another step again this year.”
Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 23, 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
