Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing · Dutch · 4× World Champion
Redefining the ceiling of what's possible in a Formula 1 car. Fearless, unyielding, and devastatingly fast in all conditions.
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Career path
Career
Max Verstappen became the youngest Formula 1 race winner in history when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix on his debut for Red Bull Racing at the age of 18 years and 228 days. The win was not a fluke — he passed Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari in the closing stages with the assurance of a driver twice his age. Formula 1 had seen prodigies before, but the manner of Verstappen's arrival suggested something qualitatively different: not just a fast young driver, but one who appeared to have skipped the learning phase entirely.
His path to the 2021 World Championship was the most contested in the hybrid era. Through 22 races, he and Lewis Hamilton traded victories and collisions — Silverstone, Monza, Saudi Arabia — in a season that raised every question Formula 1 asks about the boundary between racing and foul play. The title was decided at Abu Dhabi on the final lap under circumstances so controversial that they prompted a fundamental restructuring of how the sport manages its race direction.
What followed was even more emphatic. In 2022, Verstappen won 15 of 22 races, clinching the championship with four races remaining. In 2023, he won 19 races — a record that seemed impossible until he did it. By 2024, he had four consecutive world championships and had already established himself in the conversation about the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time, a conversation that would have seemed absurd to even broach about any driver at 27 years old.
Verstappen's driving style combines raw pace with an almost preternatural ability to manage tyres, manage traffic, and extract performance from a car across a full race distance. His overtaking ability — particularly late-braking moves into tight corners — is as aggressive as any driver in the sport's history, and his wheel-to-wheel racecraft recalls Michael Schumacher in its absolute refusal to yield without a fight.
Legendary Verstappen drives
Yas Marina Circuit · Abu Dhabi, UAE
The championship decided on the final lap of the final race. A moment that will be debated for generations — a lap that changed Formula 1 history.
Baku City Circuit · Baku, Azerbaijan
Red Bull dominance on the Baku straights — Verstappen swept past his rivals into the lead and cruised away, stretching his championship advantage with ruthless ease.
Miami International Autodrome · Miami, USA
From ninth on the grid to a commanding win — Verstappen carved through the field on the Miami straights to underline a season of total dominance.
Red Bull Ring · Spielberg, Austria
Pole, fastest lap and a lights-to-flag win at Red Bull's home race — Verstappen was untouchable at the Red Bull Ring, the high point of a dominant championship run.
Sochi Autodrom · Sochi, Russia
From the back of the grid to second in the closing laps — Verstappen's late call for intermediates as the rain arrived turned a damage-limitation day into a points coup.
Las Vegas Street Circuit · Las Vegas, USA
An instant classic on the Strip — a first-corner clash and a five-second penalty only set up a wheel-to-wheel duel with Leclerc that Verstappen won under the neon, the standout drive of a record-breaking season.
Circuit Zandvoort · Zandvoort, Netherlands
Home heaven for the Orange Army — Verstappen controlled his home Grand Prix at a reborn, banked Zandvoort to retake the championship lead.
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez · Mexico City, Mexico
A perfect launch into Turn 1 and never seen again — Verstappen dominated at altitude in Mexico City to stretch his title lead with a near-faultless drive.
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari · Imola, Italy
A weekend sweep in Ferrari's backyard — Verstappen took pole, the sprint and a commanding wet-to-dry win at Imola, silencing the Tifosi.
Silverstone Circuit · Silverstone, England
A rare off day for the four-time champion — Verstappen could wring only P7 from a recalcitrant Red Bull at Silverstone, nearly eight tenths adrift of Antonelli's pole with the car refusing to come alive over one lap.