10 Years of Max Verstappen

Verstappen joined the grid as a young, barely-known rookie. Now there’s no one in the world of motorsport who doesn’t know him, and nothing he can’t achieve…except a win in Singapore. “The Dutch Lion”, Max Verstappen recently completed his 10th season in Formula 1. Let’s have a look at the decade we had in his presence.

Max Emilian Verstappen was born on 30th of September 1997 in Belgium and was raised in the Netherlands. Due to his parents’ different nationalities, he has both Dutch and Belgian citizenship. Max was born into a racing family. His Dutch father, Jos Verstappen, was a Formula 1 driver between 1994-2003 and still competes in Rallying nowadays. His Belgian mother, Sophia Kumpen, was a well-known kart racer back in the 90s. So, as the son of two passionate racing drivers, he has basically grown up in the world of motorsports. There’s even a famous photo of little Max with his father’s former World Champion teammate, Michael Schumacher. The Dutchman became a Red Bull Junior Driver in August 2014 and in the same season, he was put into an F1 car for the first time. His free practice appearances at Japan and Brazil made him the youngest driver ever to participate in F1 with 17 years and 3 days. However, this was just the first step of a remarkable career. 

In 2015, Max Verstappen was given a full-time Formula 1 seat with Scuderia Toro Rosso, also known as Racing Bulls today. At 17 years and 166 days, he became the youngest driver to start a grand prix in F1 history. In fact, his existence in F1 made FIA reevaluate their license rules meaning that, unless a very rare occasion takes place, this record can not be broken anymore due to the 18-year-old minimum age requirement. His presence at the grid sparked controversy from the very beginning, not only because of his age, but also because of his feeder series background. He jumped directly from GP3 to F1, so there was a large crowd who had some doubts about what he could do at such a young age with little experience. However, the Dutchman didn’t waste much time silencing the doubters. Although he couldn’t finish his first race in Australia, he managed to score points in his next one at Sepang, also becoming the youngest point scorer in F1 history. The young Dutchman finished his first season in 12th place in the standings and as the Rookie of the Year. He also caught attention with his brave overtake and aggressive style on track, both against rivals and team orders.

Max started the 2016 still as a Toro Rosso driver, but shifted a gear in his performance. While he was scoring good points in 3 out of the first 4 races, Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat was causing some trouble in the grid. These issues forced Red Bull’s hand to make an early driver swap and Verstappen replaced Kvyat in Red Bull. In his debut race with them, Verstappen benefited from Mercedes’ collision and strategy in Spain. At 18 years and 228 days, he became the youngest ever F1 race winner. The rest of the season was a highlight reel of his exceptional talent, especially his wet-weather skills at Silverstone and Interlagos. The Dutchman’s move to Red Bull and performance was also beginning to make him popular in his home country, leading to the birth of the infamous “Orange Army”. However, he was still hot-headed and aggressive on the track, which was not taken well by some of his rivals, Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel to be exact.

The 2017 and 2018 seasons weren’t the best times of his young career. When the chances arose, he was taking them, but between the championship battles of Mercedes and Ferrari, those opportunities were really rare. Particularly, 2018 was the most challenging one, a season of many on-track problems. Reliability issues with the Renault engine forced Red Bull to change their supplier to Honda, which turned out to be a long-term success. Collisions with his rivals made him the target of the media critics. His famous quote, “I get really tired of all the questions, so… yeah… I think if I get a few more I'll headbutt someone” which was in response to a leading media question about collisions in F1, shows how much he was pressured by the media at the time. His aggression peaked after the Brazilian GP, when the Dutchman approached Esteban Ocon in a violent manner because of their collision in the race. “Mad Max” was well and truly born.

Finally, in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Max started showing signs of maturity in his driving style. Suddenly, podiums and victories became more common. Instead of causing the chaos, he started to manage it with Hockenheim and Interlagos 2019 being great examples of this newly found skill. Despite getting caught in the middle of chaos sometimes, usually he was rapid and consistent. He was getting prepared to be the next big rival against the dominant Mercedes and this became crystal clear when he took victory in the 2020 Abu Dhabi GP.

In 2021, the motorsport community witnessed one of the most thrilling championship battles in Formula 1 history. For the first time in years, someone was truly challenging Lewis Hamilton for the title and he was none other than the Dutch Lion himself. Verstappen and Hamilton went to war against each other every weekend, their teams also having tension as they supported their drivers. After an entire season of strategy battles, near-fatal accidents, frustrating collisions and controversial stewarding decisions, Max Verstappen emerged victorious and dethroned Lewis Hamilton. He became the first Dutch World Champion in Formula 1 history. This tense battle ended the Turbo Hybrid Era and Mercedes’ dynasty. However, the end of one era, means the beginning of another…

The 2022 season didn’t only start the Ground Effect Era, but also the era of the Flying Dutchman. At first, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari went toe-to-toe against the newly-crowned champion, but as the season progressed, Verstappen started pulling the strings. He retained his title in 2022 and this was only the beginning of what’s coming next. Max and Red Bull retained their titles once again in the next season in a record-breaking fashion. According to RN365, the Dutchman broke 18 different F1 records that season alone. Some of those remarkable records being the most wins (19), most consecutive wins (10) which was a record held by another Red Bull legend, Sebastian Vettel, and highest win percentage (86.36%). Partway through the season, his closest rival and teammate Sergio Perez was closer to the bottom of the table than to him, which sums up Max’s dominant performance.

Verstappen was also the favourite coming into the 2024 season, but this time, he was up against a different challenge. His season started well once again, but from the Miami GP on, teams started catching up to Red Bull. As the season progressed, Red Bull was struggling a lot and clearly didn’t have the quickest car on the grid anymore. While this was heavily affecting the contribution of his teammate, Max was somehow coping against it, showing his experience and adapting his racecraft to these changing situations. Despite the rising issues both on and off track, the Dutch Lion won the championship for the 4th consecutive year and last time in the 2024 season.

In the 2025 season, Red Bull’s problems grew so much more, maybe to the highest since the 2018 season. Even Verstappen’s best efforts weren’t enough to take on the Constructors’ Champions, McLaren, and his championship chances were slipping away. The results and the lack of performance put Christian Horner’s 20-year run as the team principal to an end. Laurent Mekies took over just before the summer break and this brought the change that Red Bull and Verstappen desperately needed. New upgrades after the summer break have borne fruit. Max found his way back to the winning ways and consistently closed the gap to the McLaren pair, putting more pressure on them each week since Zandvoort. However, the 104-point deficit could only be reduced to 2. Despite his remarkable comeback performance and winning the most races in 2025, Lando Norris was crowned the new F1 World Champion in Abu Dhabi. The Dutchman didn’t go down without a fight.

In the end, Max Verstappen completed an entire decade in Formula 1, breaking records, winning championships and carving his name into the history of the sport. In 2025, he also began trying new side quests in other racing series; he's known to be fond of endurance racing. We don’t know how many more years we have with him, he once mentioned that he wouldn’t make a career as long as some other drivers. So, it’s important that we enjoy the Dutch Lion’s presence in the sport as much as we can.

Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026