F1
Max Verstappen - 5 things to know for 2026
After a decade at the wheel of our cars, you’d think there isn’t much we don’t know about four-time champion and all-round legend Max Verstappen. You’d be wrong.
Here are five Max facts you need to know ahead of the 2026 season.
01
Max Does the Dozen
The 2026 season will be Max’s 12th campaign in Formula 1. That’s pretty remarkable for a driver who turns 29 this year but the Dutch driver made his debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at the age of just 17 years, five months and 13 days, making him F1’s youngest starter. A whopping 4,012 days will have elapsed between then and when he kicks off his 12th season at this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
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Max Verstappen 2015 F1 Driver Interview
16-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen talks about his Formula 1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2015.
02
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is set to be Max’s 250th Grand Prix start
Max’s outstanding career means he’s racked up quite a lot of Grand Prix starts and this year he will hit a big milestone – his 250th Grand Prix start. It’s going to happen at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the 26th of September, just four days before Max’s 29th birthday and he’ll mark 250 starts a full four years before the next youngest to hit the milestone, Sebastian Vettel, who was 33 years, 2 months and 25 days old when he made it to 250 at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix. Max will be just the 15th driver in F1 to hit 250 starts, as Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas will also get there at this year’s race in Bahrain.
Max Becomes The Fifth Winner Of The Azerbaijan Grand Prix
© Getty Images
03
Three is a Magic Number
Max is racing with a new number this year – 3. The Dutchman raced with the number 1 from 2022 through 2025, but having lost out on a fifth title by just two points at the end of last year, he could either revert to the 33 he used from 2015 all the way to winning his first title at the end of 2021 or choose a new digit.
#33 Fully Focused
© Getty Images
My favourite number has always been three, apart from number one.
He chose to switch to the number 3, explaining: “My favourite number has always been three, apart from number one. We can now swap, so it'll be number three. Number 33 was always fine, but I just like one 3 better than two."
And it’s an auspicious number. Of course, it has plenty of history at the Team, with Daniel Ricciardo racing as number 3 to his each of his seven wins with the team and using 3 throughout his career.
Daniel Ricciardo In Singapore
© Getty Images
But there’s even more success behind the number, with a host of F1 greats racking up wins and titles with the number three on their car. Mike Hawthorn used it on his way to the 1958 title, Graham Hill also ran the number 3 in both of his title years – with BRM in 1962 and Lotus in 1968 – and three-time Champion Jackie Stewart used the number on his way to titles in 1969, with Matra, and 1973 with Tyrrell.
Jochen Rindt Monaco 1970
© [unknown]
Three was also used by title-winning luminaries such as Jim Clark and Jochen Rindt during their careers but it wasn’t until 1997 that it was on a title-winning car for a full season. Then, Jacques Villeneuve raced to overall glory in his number three Williams FW19. Michael Schumacher then took the number over the 2000 crown using 3 and that was the last time the number won a title. As a four-time champion it’s fitting then that Max becomes number three for 2026.
Villeneuve, shown in 1997, impressed as a rookie
© Williams
04
It’s Max’s final home race
Unless you’re British or Italian (with each nation staging F1 races every year since the start of the championship) your chances of competing in a home Grand Prix are hit and miss. Morocco, for example, only had one run back in 1958.
Max has been one of the lucky few to not just compete on home soil but also to win in his backyard. However, after taking three Dutch Grand Prix wins since the return of the race in 2021, Max will bid farewell to Zandvoort this year as the race is dropping off the schedule.
Max Claims Dutch Grand Prix victory
© Getty Images
Of course, when I look at it, it’s something that I’m sad about, that it’s not going to continue.
The event’s withdrawal was announced in December 2024, and Max was naturally disappointed. “Of course, when I look at it, it’s something that I’m sad about, that it’s not going to continue.
“On the other hand, I’m very proud of what they have done,” he added. “When I started in Formula 1, I would have never imagined that we would go back to Zandvoort. And the races that we’ve had there, the event that they put on, I have a lot of respect for that and I’m proud that I played a part in that as well. I think the final year, ’26, with a Sprint event also, they say they’re going to go out with a bang. So, I’m also very excited to see that.”
05
Half a century in the making
We don’t like to tempt fate but in a career of landmarks there is one more Max can add this season – 50 pole positions. The Dutchman is currently on 48 and if he manages to top Qualifying and start from the front of the grid a couple of times this season, he’ll become just the fifth driver in F1 history to grab 50 poles or more.
That First Pole Feeling
© Getty Images
If he does that, his next target will be the 57 scored by Vettel and then the 65 landed by the legendary Ayrton Senna. In 2nd place on the list is the great Michael Schumacher with 68 pole positions, and then there’s a mighty leap up to Lewis Hamilton who has a remarkable 104 pole positions to date.
Verstappen matched Ayrton Senna's record with his eighth straight pole
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool