Max Verstappen He was only 17 years, 5 months and 15 days old when he made his Formula 1 debut with Toro Rosso, then Red Bull’s subsidiary team. An absolute record for precocity, ahead of Stroll (18), Alguersuari and Alonso (19). Quickly, he also became the youngest driver to score points and win a Grand Prix, at 18 years and 228 days.
That happened in 2016, on a weekend that would change his life forever. Max He arrived at the Circuit de Barcelona recently promoted to Red Bull, after doctor Helmut Marko decided to remove the Russian Kvyat to give the seat to his protégé. After the accident of hamilton and Rosberg In the first corner, Max inherited the lead of the race and resisted until the end to win his first victory. A promising debut.
The first, against Hamilton
It took five years for him to win his first world crown, in 2021. Verstappen, more mature and finally with a competitive car, fought until the last corner with Lewis Hamilton in one of the most intense and controversial finishes in history. The suffering and pressure he experienced in Abu Dhabi tested his character and his iron will that Max had forged under the influence of his father, Jos, former Formula 1 driver and one-time partner of Michael Schumacher.
He has achieved the next two consecutive titles with enormous authority. Verstappenwho turned 26 last Saturday, has without a doubt the best car on the grid. The RB19 is the masterpiece of behind-the-scenes genius Adrian Newey. But it would be naive to think that he wins only because of his car. After ten seasons in the ‘big circus’, the Dutch driver is driving at his best level and hardly makes any mistakes.
In 2022 Verstappen He said goodbye to a record-breaking season with 454 points, 15 victories, 17 podiums and 7 pole positions, being essential for Red Bull to win a constructors’ title again after the four it won in the It was Vettel (2010-13). This season he has outdone himself. In Japan he celebrated his team’s sixth World Cup And this weekend in Qatar he has won the drivers’ crown with six grand prix remaining, equaling Michael Schumacher’s feat in 2002 and joining the select club of three-time champions that make up Jack Brabhan, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna and his ‘father-in-law’ Nelson Piquet. With a total of 13 victories so far this year, he can reach 19 if he wins all the remaining races.
A marvelous talent
Born on September 30, 1997 in Hasselt, Belgium, 40 minutes from the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit, but naturalized Dutch, Max received his first kart at the age of 4. and started competing at 7, always guided by his father, who raced 106 Grand Prix in Formula 1 between 1994 and 2003. Although the excessively harsh methods that Jos used to guide his talented son’s sporting career have been commented on more than once, the three-time champion defends him: “He abandoned his career to help me. How many parents do this? I am very grateful to him because without him I would not be here”.
In his meteoric rise, after winning the 2013 karting world championship and competing in a single season in European F3, Max managed to catch the attention of the powerful Helmut Marko, director of the Red Bull Young Driver Development Program and right-hand man of the owner of the energy drink company Dieter Mateschitz, died last year, who considered him “a pilot of those who appear one every decade.”
The ‘orange tide’
At 16 years old, in August 2014, Verstappen knew he was going to replace Jean Eric Vergne in Toro Rosso the following season and one day before turning 17 he received as a gift the Super License to race in Formula 1. A few days later, he got into a car for the first time in practice 1 of the Japanese Grand Prix. And on March 15, 2015, at 17 years, 5 months and 15 days old, he began to write his success story.
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Verstappen is a true mass idol in his country. The ‘marea orange’ follows him on circuits around the world. “I was never ‘Mad Max’. Simply put, I’m Max, a professional driver who tries to achieve the best result for his team,” emphasizes the Red Bull driver, who denies his nickname and has refused to appear as the protagonist in Netflix’s successful ‘Drive to Survive’: “They take “Contextual things make us look like heroes or villains when we are just pilots,” he argues.
His personal life also flows in harmony. In January 2021 she officially confirmed her relationship with Kelly Piquet, nine years older than him and former partner of Daniil Kvyat, with whom he has a daughter, Penelope. The beautiful young woman is the daughter of the great Nelson Piquet triple Formula 1 world champion (1981, 1983 and 1987), whom Max has just equaled in the historical ranking.