Max Verstappen was crowned old and new Formula 1 world champion with his twelfth win of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Dutchman is in a league of his own this year, impressing with outstanding dominance and consistency. The voices that see Verstappen as the next big dominator in the premier class of motorsport have long been getting louder.
Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton share practically all major records in Formula 1. The two were world champions seven times each. A record that Max Verstappen is still very far away from.
Schumi’s brother Ralf arranges the scenario after the Dutchman’s second World Cup triumph in his “skycolumn: “Even though he’s only 25 years old, I think it’s a little premature to start thinking about tackling the records set by Lewis Hamilton and Michael. I’m assuming that Verstappen isn’t up to it just yet. That’s still a long way off,” said the 47-year-old, who drove 180 races in Formula 1 himself.
Max Verstappen as the next record collector in Formula 1?
While Lewis Hamilton is clearly ahead of the German sports legend Michael Schumacher in terms of Grand Prix victories (103:91) and pole positions (103:68), Schumi is still ahead in other statistics such as the most fastest race laps (77:61 in compared to Hamilton) or most of the world championship titles in a row (5: 4) at the top of the Formula 1 leaderboards.
Will Max Verstappen, currently the best driver in the F1 circus, be able to penetrate these spheres himself? Ralf Schumacher is certain: “Of course he can definitely do that in terms of driving ability, there’s no doubt about that. But we also know that in Formula 1 it also depends on factors that the driver cannot always influence,” said the younger brother of Michael Schumacher, who himself won six Formula 1 races.