F1
Everything you need to know about Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing's four-time F1 champion is one of the all-time greats in his sport. Learn where he's from, and what he's achieved.
It’s not normal that a driver can arrive in Formula 1 with almost unprecedented hype and somehow exceed it, but Max Verstappen has proved time and time again that’s he’s far from a ‘normal’ F1 driver.
Over more than decade in the world’s highest-profile motorsport category, the Dutchman has evolved from promising progeny to rising star to the unquestioned kingpin in his field, ticking off milestones at a rapid rate that have made his name a must-have on any list of F1’s all-time greats.
Already in the top 10 all-time for race victories, pole positions, podiums and world championships, the 28-year-old’s story remains ongoing, the ceiling of his achievements being redefined by the season.
Here’s the lowdown on Oracle Red Bull Racing’s shining light.
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Key facts about Max Verstappen
Six key facts about Max Verstappen
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Who is Max Verstappen?
Max Emilian Verstappen was born in Hasselt, Belgium on 30 September 1997; to say motorsport was in his blood is to undersell it, with Father Jos Verstappen in the fourth season of his 106-race F1 career when Max was born, and Mother Sophie Kumpen a former champion karter with success on the international stage.
Beginning in karting at the age of four, Max achieved success after success in Belgium and the Netherlands before his first foray into international competition at the age of 12; by the time he was 15 in 2013, he held three international karting titles – two European championships and a world championship – simultaneously, something never previously achieved.
Max Verstappen karting in 2016
© Getty
The following year, 2014, Max raced in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship – but soon, there were bigger things in store …
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Max Verstappen's F1 career timeline
Max joined the Red Bull Junior Team in August 2014 and drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in free practice for that year’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka circuit aged just 17 years and three days, the youngest driver ever to participate in an F1 event.
That ‘youngest-ever’ tag was soon to become a trait; at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix of 2015, Max became the youngest F1 driver to start a race at 17 years and 166 days. A fortnight later, he scored his first F1 points with a seventh-place finish in Malaysia.
After finishing 12th in the 2015 drivers’ championship, Max began his second season with Toro Rosso with, justifiably, higher hopes.
How high? We found out. Fast.
22 min
Max Verstappen: Four Time World Champion
At the end of a dramatic season, newly crowned four-time world champion Max Verstappen joins Nic for a live recording of Talking Bull, straight from the Oracle Red Bull Racing technology campus.
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Championships and achievements
Max was promoted to Red Bull Racing for the fifth round of the 2016 season at the Spanish Grand Prix, and – remarkably, from fourth on the grid – was victorious on debut for the team in Barcelona, becoming F1’s youngest-ever race winner (18 years, 228 days) on his 24th start.
Max Verstappen wins the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix
© Getty
After seven podiums and a fifth-place finish in the championship, Max didn’t look back. Two more wins followed in 2017, while by 2019, he finished third in the championship after taking three victories in a season where he claimed a maiden pole position in Hungary, one of five front-row starts.
In 2021, Max emerged triumphant in a season-long battle with Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to win his first title in a dramatic Abu Dhabi denouement, and the floodgates opened from there.
Max Verstappen becomes World Champion in 2021
© Getty
For the following four seasons, the number 1 reserved for the world champion never left the nosecone of Max’s car; his 2023 season, where he won 19 of 22 Grands Prix including 10 in a row from Miami to Monza, took 12 poles, finished on the podium 21 times and scored 575 points – setting single-season records for wins, points and podiums – is a display of dominance that looks set to stand the test of time.
Max’s 2024 title – his fourth in succession – saw him become one of just six drivers ever to win four or more F1 championships, along with Michael Schumacher, Hamilton (seven each) and Juan Manuel Fangio (five), with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel also with four crowns.
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Max Verstappen's driving style
Like his peers in F1’s ‘greatest-ever’ club, Max’s approach to his craft has morphed over the years. Just as fast, just as feisty, but even more complete.
The unrelenting aggression in wheel-to-wheel combat that defined his teenage years and marked him as a man to watch as he tiptoed close to the edge – and occasionally over it – gave way to a more nuanced, rounded driver who has become the man for all seasons, all conditions, all challenges.
Need proof? Max won 18 races in a row when he qualified on pole position between 2022-24 but was victorious from seven different grid positions in the 2022 season alone.
His 2024 win in Brazil from 17th on the grid set a record for wins from different grid positions (10), while the extent of his superiority is often best illustrated when conditions are at their worst; his performances in teeming rain and compromised visibility at the same Interlagos circuit over the years have become a calling card, his 2016 charge from 16th to third in the final 14 laps remaining, to this day, one of his signature moments.
13 min
What Makes Max Verstappen One Of The F1 Greats?
Max hits 200+ races with Oracle Red Bull Racing — Behind The Charge follows the 4 time World Champion in Hungary, with insight from team-mates, rivals, Gianpiero Lambiase, and Laurent Mekies.
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Outside of F1
When Max isn’t racing, you’ll find Max … racing!
Sim racing has and continues to be Max’s happy place away from the cockpit, while on (and off) track, Max founded the Verstappen.com Racing team in 2022 (now known as Verstappen Racing) that has competed in rallying, GT racing and endurance events. Max ticked off a long-time bucket-list entry when he was part of a four-driver line-up to tackle the revered Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2026 in a Red Bull-liveried Mercedes-AMG GT3 machine.
Away from the track, Max and long-time girlfriend Kelly Piquet – daughter of Brazil’s three-F1 champion Nelson Piquet – became parents to daughter Lily in 2025.
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Explore more about Max Verstappen
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