ALL ABOUT FORMULA 1
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VERSTAPPEN, THE NEW GENIUS OF F1:
Max Verstappen is an example of driver evolution, who arrived at 17 years in F1, still raw and making mistakes, but he learned and improved year after year until he became this driver who can now be placed alongside the greatest geniuses in F1.
Max is the son of Dutch F1 driver Jos Verstappen who raced for Benetton in 1994 and son of Belgian kartist Sophie Kumpen. He started karting at the age of 4 and had an impressive career:
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Belgian Kart Champion (Minimax) 2006
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Belgian and Dutch Kart Champion (Minimax) 2007
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Belgian Kart Champion (Cadet category) 2007
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Flemish Kart Champion (Minimax) 2009
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Belgian Kart Champion (KF5) 2009
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Kart World Cup (KF3) 2010
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runner-up WSK World Series (Kart) Champion 2011
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WSK Series Champion in the KF2 (Kart) class 2012
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South Garda Winter Cup KF2 (Kart) 2012
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Champion KF and KZ European Champion (karting) 2013
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KZ World Champion (karting) 2013
In 2014, Verstappen moved to single-seaters and in his debut year he took a great 3rd place in European F3 with 10 victories (6 consecutive). He had 8 retirements, that's why he lost to the champion Esteban Ocon who had 9 victories. That same year he did a test at F3 Dallara and F Renault, being faster than the official drivers of these teams.
Verstappen in kart Verstappen wins in Spa in European F3 2014
Verstappen "skipped phases" of learning and after a year in single-seaters, he arrived in F1 in 2015, without the necessary experience. Even so, Verstappen did better than his teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr, scoring points in the 2nd race in F1 with a great 7th place for Toro Rosso. He placed 12th in the championship.
At the start of the 2016 season, he was promoted to Red Bull's starting driver, winning in his debut race with the team at the age of 18, at the Spanish GP/2016 (photo below), becoming the youngest driver to win a race in F1. He was lucky with the accident between Hamilton and Rosberg on the first lap, but he ran a perfect race, without errors and didn't waste the chance that appeared in front of him.
Verstappen's first victory at the 2016 Spanish GP
In 2016 and 2017, Max had good seasons, but in both seasons he was beaten by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, precisely because of the mistakes he made and his lack of experience.
STARTS:
Ricciardo 18 x 19 Verstappen
ARRIVALS:
Ricciardo 19 x 18 Verstappen
POINTS:
Ricciardo 420 x 359 Verstappen
In 2018, it was the year of Max Verstappen's "explosion", he clearly evolved to another level, beating Ricciardo in starts, finishes and points, so the Australian driver felt cornered and withdrew from the team. This evolution of the Dutch driver was very similar to what happened with Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button, who took a while to reach the peak of their respective performances in F1.
STARTS:
Verstappen 14 x 7 Ricciardo
ARRIVALS:
Verstappen 15 x 6 Ricciardo
POINTS:
Verstappen 249 x 170 Ricciardo
In 2019 and 2020, Verstappen simply took no notice of any of his teammates and overwhelmingly beat Gasly and Albon. And by the way, they were good pilots.
In 2021, Red Bull, helped by the improvement of the Honda engine, built a car at the level of Mercedes and competed for the title race by race with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, winning the championship after the GP Abu Dhabi 2021 episode, in which Michael Massi making a mistake by not giving a red flag, it gave a strategic advantage to Red Bull, who could change Verstappen's tires, to overtake Hamilton and win the championship on the last lap of the race.
Verstappen x Hamilton 2021:
Starts 12 x 10
Arrivals: 11 x 10 (not counting Monza, which they both beat)
Poles: 10 x 5
Wins 10 x 8
VMR: 8x8
Podiums: 18 x 17
Points: 395.5 x 387.5
NOTE: Very balanced season.
Remembering that Vettel was able to defeat Hamilton in 2017 and 2018, in reasonably balanced cars and he failed. While Verstappen had the same chance in 2021, also in reasonably balanced cars and managed to defeat the English driver.
Verstappen defeats Hamilton and becomes F1 champion in 2021
In 2022, Ferrari started better, then Adrian Newey made updates to Red Bull, the car improved and passed Ferrari. Ferrari struggled in training, but at race pace, Verstappen took no notice of anyone and won the title resoundingly.
In 2023, the massacre was even greater, Red Bull was more dominant than the 2022 model, and Max won the championship with 19 victories in 22 races. His teammate, Sergio Perez, was runner-up in the season, but was never able to compete against the Dutch driver in the years he raced alongside Max.
In 2024, Red Bull started dominant, but faced with the bad atmosphere within the team, Adrian Newey announced that he would leave the team, and from GP Miami onwards, the other teams (McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes) improved their cars, with the McLaren passed Red Bull's performance. This made McLaren's Lando Norris chase Verstappen's score, but the Dutchman put in spectacular performances with the equipment he had at hand, managed to maintain the gap and secure the title, even with an inferior car to McLaren.
The Dutchman made maneuvers that were quite questionable in terms of legality against his opponent, going beyond the level of "fair play" but regardless of that, analyzing the performance of his teammate Sergio Perez, it was clear that the Dutchman won the 2024 title "by arm".
TEAMMATES DESTROYER
Verstappen arrived in F1 after just 1 year of motorsport, and the lack of experience in single-seaters was immediately felt in the first years of the category. Unlike drivers like Fittipaldi, Piquet, Prost, Senna and Schumacher, who arrived in F1 already showing that they could be future champions of the category, the Dutchman only showed top performance from 2018 onwards.
The biggest TEAMMATES DESTROYERS in Modern F1 (after 1968) were: Senna, Prost and Schumacher, with the German having a bit of difficulty defeating Rubens Barrichello in 2002 and 2003, and in those years Ferrari's team orders ended helping the German driver defeat the Brazilian.
From 2018 to the present day, we are seeing Verstappen destroying his teammates: Ricciardo, Gasly, Albon and Perez, and by the way, none of them are weak drivers, they are all good drivers, so through this analysis we can put Max on the same level of the 3 drivers mentioned above (Senna, Prost and Schumacher).
Verstappen had 4 cars capable of being champion and won all 4 titles, and in 2024 he didn't have the best car. For all the reasons mentioned above, he already deserves to be on the list of the best drivers of all time. And he still has a lot to do in F1 to increase his numbers.
VETTEL X VERSTAPPEN
Vettel and Verstappen won 4 consecutive titles for the Red Bull team, both had good drivers (Webber and Perez) as teammates, but the similarities between them end there.
Vettel always had the best car in F1 in the 4 years he was champion with Red Bull (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013), and in 2011 and 2013, he had a dominant car. Even with the best car, the German had difficulties with Alonso in 2010 and 2012 at Ferrari and defeated the Spaniard by just 4 and 3 points, respectively. Knowing that in those years Ferrari was inferior to Red Bull, this leads us to believe that Alonso was a technically better driver than Vettel. And we have to report that the German driver also had difficulties with Mark Webber in 2010, so much so that he was behind his teammate for a large part of the championship.
In 2021 Red Bull was in a technical balance with Mercedes, at the beginning of the year Red Bull was slightly better and at the end of the year Mercedes was slightly better, and with that Verstappen competed and beat Hamilton. In 2022 and 2023, the Dutchman had dominant cars and won easily. And finally in 2024, Red Bull was not in its best form from the 2nd third of the season and he managed to manage the championship, to be the champion. In none of those years did Verstappen have any difficulties with Perez.
From the perspective of the author of this site, Vettel was an excellent driver, but Verstappen, for everything said above, is a genius. In other words, Max Verstappen is a level above Vettel.
Verstappen spectacularly wins the Brazilian GP 2024, in the rain, after starting in 17th place
VERSTAPPEN x SENNA x SCHUMACHER
Verstappen is a very fast, regular, consistent, bold driver, good on all types of tracks and in any weather conditions and he understands the car's behavior well during races.
Some of the Dutchman's driving characteristics are very reminiscent of those of Ayrton Senna, who mixed speed with boldness, understood the car's behavior, knew how to save tires, but made mistakes at the beginning of his career. Verstappen, in addition to having the same characteristics, also made several mistakes in his early years.
Alain Prost has the same opinion and in a recent interview, he compared Verstappen at the beginning of his career to Senna. Red Bull's Helmut Marko also compared the Dutchman with Senna. He said: "Of all the drivers I've seen, Verstappen is the driver most similar to Senna." Ditto Martin Brundle and Gerhrad Berger.
As for the car style, Verstappen likes a rear car (oversteering), just as Michael Schumacher also liked it. This type of car is more skittish when braking, requires a very technical and precise touch, and many drivers have difficulty adapting. Another similarity between Max and the German driver is the way he plays hard with his opponents and is often quite unfair towards them.
But I must mention that there is another similarity between Verstappen and Senna, the Brazilian had an easy time adapting to different types of cars, rear, neutral or front, and the Dutchman also has the same characteristic.
It is not known whether the Dutchman is a good car driver, as nowadays this requirement is not as important as in the 70s, 80s and 90s, but it is known within F1 that Max really likes to test in simulators, spending hours a day training, so much so that his private jet has a simulator that he uses during his plane trips.
For the reasons mentioned above, I consider that he has a bit of Senna and Schumacher in the way he drives, and even at his young age, the Dutchman can already be considered one of the best in F1 history.