Groomed for stardom from the age of four , Max is the product of a strict and targeted effort by his former F1 ® driver father Jos to make him the greatest of all time . His mum Sophie was also a championship-winning karter who competed in world series against the likes of Jarno Trulli , Giancarlo Fisichella and Dario Franchitti ; she even raced against now Red Bull boss Christian Horner . When Max arrived on the grid in 2015 , Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said he had ‘ all the ingredients you need to be an absolute champion ’, noting his ‘ unbelievable ’ speed , great maturity for his age and a hard work ethic . And how right he was .
In the early years on the kart circuit , Jos prepared chassis and engines , took his son testing in all weathers and drove thousands of miles to compete around Europe . In return , he tolerated no mistakes . In some races , he restricted where the young karter could overtake , forcing him to be more innovative , and when a hot-headed crash cost him the 2012 World Cup , the pair did not talk for a week . Lesson learned ; the year after he won every race he entered .
Max repaid his father ’ s support by winning his first race aged seven , his first domestic title at nine and the top-level European and World championships at the age of 16 . All this gave him the ability to jump from his first car race in European Formula Three to his first F1 seat in just one season . In 2015 , when he made his debut for Red Bull ’ s junior squad , Toro Rosso , he became the youngest ever F1 driver at the age of 17 years and 165 days .
That first race in Australia looked set to be a points-scoring finish until engine failure put him out , but at the next , in Malaysia , he qualified an astonishing sixth and came home seventh . He ended up as the FIA rookie of the year , but , tellingly , he also won ‘ personality of the year ’ and ‘ action of the year ’ for one of his many brave overtaking moves . Instinctive and aggressive , he had made his mark – and four races into 2016 , he was promoted to Red Bull itself .
The team ’ s confidence was validated immediately when he qualified fourth in Spain and capitalised on a collision between the dominant Mercedes cars ahead to become the youngest winner in F1 ®. He claimed six more podiums that season and won two more races in 2017 , but his bold approach was becoming too much for some , and several of his rivals accused him of being over-aggressive . That , however , only served to fuel the fire .
Although Mercedes ’ dominance prevented Verstappen from securing the results his talent deserved in the following three years – with just seven wins coming his way – regulation changes made Red Bull the class of the field in 2021 and he took the car by the horns . In the past three seasons , he has been almost unstoppable , winning all three titles , 44 races ( 10 , 15 , 19 ) from 66 and a total of 1424.5 points .
Last year ’ s record-breaking season saw him win 86.3 % of the races ( 19 from 22 ) including 10 victories in a row , four in a calendar month and 12 from pole position . He won four sprint races , took a total of 21 podiums , 10 fastest laps and scored 575 points , more than double that of runner-up and team-mate Sergio Pérez . This year success continued with five wins from the first seven . If he keeps this up , he could yet achieve that dream of becoming the sport ’ s greatest ever . •
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