LAS VEGAS — Formula 1 star Max Verstappen’s unbelievable 19 grand prix victories in 2023 included an incredible streak of 10 in a row — he broke his own series records of 15 single-season wins and nine in a row — on the way to his third consecutive driver’s championship.
His performance produced the most dominant season in F1 history, and it’s arguably also one of the greatest ever on the international open-wheel circuit
And yet it is this year’s eight-win season — with two GP races remaining on the 24-race schedule, it is his lowest victory total since he finished 2020 with a pair of first places among his nine podium finishes — that Verstappen considers a career-defining campaign. Those eight wins were enough to win help the Red Bull driver clinch a fourth consecutive F1 championship late Saturday night with his easy ride at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old Dutchman only needed to finish ahead of rival Lando Norris of McLaren to seal the title in Sin City, and he did it with a fifth-place finish. Securing his latest crown with next weekend’s Qatar GP and the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP a week later still remaining was a strong statement in a year when Red Bull’s dominance had been tested by Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.
“Max deserved to win it. He drove a better season than I did, he deserved it more than anyone else,” Norris said. “Max just doesn’t have a weakness. When he’s got the best car, he dominates, and when he’s not got the best car, he’s still just there always.”
Verstappen became the sixth driver in F1 history to win four or more titles, joining all-time greats Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (seven each), Juan Manuel Fangio (five) and Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel (four each).
Saturday’s race was won, meanwhile, by pole-sitter George Russell, who was followed by Hamilton in the first 1-2 sweep for the Mercedes drivers since 2022. Hamilton came from 10th on the starting grid to capture his podium finish.
Carlos Sainz Jr. finished third and Charles Leclerc fourth for Ferrari as the constructor championship remains a tight battle between that team and leader McLaren.
Red Bull won the title that pays roughly $150 million in prize money the past two seasons but has slipped to third in the standings, and the championship battle appears likely to come down to the finale two weeks from now. McLaren has a 24-point lead over Ferrari heading into next weekend’s race in Qatar after Norris and Oscar Piastri finished sixth and seventh in Las Vegas.
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was eighth and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda ninth, while Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
Verstappen’s year started in cruise control with seven wins in the first 10 races for a commanding lead in the points standings. However, that seventh win was in June, and as the competition caught up to Red Bull, Verstappen found himself stuck in a 10-race losing streak with Norris chipping away at his lead in the standings.
It was his recovery at the rain-soaked Sao Paulo GP in Brazil on Nov. 3 for his first victory in months that righted the ship and has Verstappen insistent this will go down as one of his best seasons ever.
“For sure. I mean, you know, it was a very challenging season,” said Verstappen, whose father Jos is a retired F1 driver whose former teammates include Schumacher. “I think also as a person, at times it’s very challenging, and I had to be calm. And I think in a way, of course, I still prefer last season. I enjoyed that a lot.
“But I think this season definitely, again, taught me a lot of lessons that I’m very proud of. How we handled it also as a team. So in a way, of course, that makes it also a very, very special and beautiful season. I would say for 70% of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something that I’m very proud of.”
Red Bull was in turmoil earlier this year as team principal Christian Horner was under investigation related to allegations of inappropriate behavior toward an employee, with Verstappen’s father seemingly on a relentless mission to have Horner removed. Instead, other key executives fled, even as Verstappen was winning at the start of the season, and the talented driver had to manage his own mental toughness every race weekend.
“The beginning was quite, let’s say, a bit messy, but I think I’m quite calm in those situations,” he said. “I think it’s very difficult to disturb me with anything. I’m very focused on the racing side of things. And I know that when I sit in the car, I forget about everything, even positive, negative stuff. And I just focus on what’s ahead of me, and that’s performance and drive the car as fast as I can.”
How long Verstappen continues to keep this pace remains unclear. He’s been very clear that he doesn’t want a career spanning multiple decades, and while he loves winning more than anything else in his life, it’s not going to fulfill him forever.
“I think in your life, every year there are always thoughts going through your head from ‘How long do I still want to do this? Where do I want to do this? How do I want to do this?'” he said. “There are things in your private life that happen, of course, in your racing life. There are always things that you have to deal with and think about.
“It’s very important to split your private life and racing life. But it’s fine to have these thoughts in your head about what you want to do. … I’m also not someone that makes very drastic decisions at the same time. And I’m just very happy where I’m at at the moment. When there are tough times, it’s very easy to say goodbye or forget about it or ignore it. But I think it’s actually way more important to actually face them and go through it together and deal with it and just try to just move on from there and focus back, of course, on the performance side of things and have fun out there. That’s at the end of the most important. If you’re not having fun, then there’s no point to continue.”
He has won four titles in 10 years in F1, and it’s not unreasonable to think he could someday break the championship record shared by Hamilton, the British star who is moving from Mercedes to Ferrari next year and will be 40 by the time the season starts, and Schumacher, the 55-year-old German great whose final season was 2012. They are also the only two drivers ahead of him on F1’s career wins list as Hamilton has 105, Schumacher 91 and Verstappen 62.
Catching up would take a long commitment, though, and Verstappen has no desire at this stage of his life to be racing in his 40s.
“I’d like to win another 10 championships,” he said, “but I know I’m not going to be in Formula 1 in 10 years.”