Max Verstappen: Four F1 Titles, Still the Man to Beat
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Formula 1 Driver Spotlight, the sister series to our NASCAR Thursday feature. Every week we pull one F1 driver into the garage and look at the career, the numbers, and the life outside the car. This week: the number 1.
The Short Version
Max Verstappen is a four-time Formula 1 World Champion, the youngest driver ever to start a Grand Prix, and the youngest ever to win one. He has 71 career wins, 48 poles, and a 2023 season that broke records nobody thought were breakable. He lost the closest title fight in the sport's modern history in 2025, and now he is grinding through the biggest rules reset in a decade trying to get back on top. If you only know one thing about him, know this: he does not accept second place quietly.
From Hasselt to the Youngest Driver in F1 History
Max Verstappen was born on September 30, 1997, in Hasselt, Belgium, into a racing family. His father, Jos Verstappen, drove in Formula 1 through the 1990s and 2000s. His mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a serious karter in her own right. Max was in a kart by age 4 and racing competitively by 7. In 2013 he swept three separate CIK-FIA karting championships in a single season, a signal that he was not a normal prospect.
Red Bull's junior program moved fast. Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut for Toro Rosso at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at 17 years old, making him the youngest driver ever to start a Grand Prix. One year later, promoted mid-season to the main Red Bull team, he won his very first race for them at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. He was 18. Nobody younger had ever won a Formula 1 race.
Signature Moments
The defining moment of Verstappen's career came in 2021. He and Lewis Hamilton fought all season, crashing into each other twice, trading the points lead back and forth, and taking it to a final-lap shootout at the Abu Dhabi finale. Verstappen passed Hamilton on the last lap to win the race and the title, becoming the first World Champion from the Netherlands. The finish was controversial and is still argued about today, but the championship stood.
He backed it up with a dominant 2022, then delivered a 2023 season that rewrote the record book: 19 wins in 22 races and 21 podiums, both all-time single-season records. In 2024 he won a fourth straight title while driving for a Red Bull team that finished third in the constructors' standings, the first time a champion's team had finished that low in 41 years.
Then came 2025. Verstappen trailed McLaren's Lando Norris by 104 points mid-season and clawed it back to 16 points heading into the Abu Dhabi finale. He won the last race of the year but still finished 2 points short, the closest title margin since Formula 1 adopted its current points system in 2010. It was the end of his four-year run atop the championship, and it set up 2026 as a fight to get it back.
🥵🥵 That's P2 for Max at the Austrian Grand Prix, a podium at the Red Bull Ring 🙌🙌 #AustrianGP
— Max Verstappen (@VerstappenCOM) June 2026
2026: The Rules Changed, and the Fight Is On
Formula 1 tore up its engine and aero rulebook for 2026, pushing cars toward smaller, more electric-heavy power units. Red Bull has not had a smooth start. Verstappen retired from the Chinese Grand Prix with a coolant fault and spent the opening rounds well off the pace he is used to, sitting seventh in the standings without a win through the first eight races. He has been one of the loudest critics of the new rules, calling parts of the racing "not racing" and warning the sport it will regret the direction.
Round eight brought a turn. At his team's home race, the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen fought through the field to finish second behind Mercedes' George Russell, his best result of the season. It is one race, not a turnaround, but it is the shape of a driver who has never been comfortable finishing anywhere but first working his way back.
By the Numbers
Here is the career so far, laid out in the parts that matter. Every number below is a Formula 1 career figure through the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix.
Off the Track
Verstappen's partner is Kelly Piquet, daughter of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet, together since 2020. The couple welcomed a daughter, Lily, born April 25, 2025, who joins Kelly's older daughter Penelope. Verstappen is known in the paddock as blunt on team radio and guarded with the press, preferring to let results do the talking.
Away from Formula 1, racing is still his hobby. He runs a sim racing outfit, now called Verstappen Sim Racing after years as Team Redline, and gives his own sim drivers real seat time in actual race cars. In September 2025 he entered the Nurburgring 24 Hours in a GT3 car under the fake name "Franz Hermann" just to race without a media circus following him around the Nordschleife.
Fun Stats
He is the youngest driver to ever start a Formula 1 race and the youngest to ever win one. His 19 wins in 2023 and 21 podiums that same year are both single-season records. His 2024 title, won with a third-place constructor, had not happened in 41 years. And his 2025 runner-up finish, just 2 points back, is the tightest championship margin since the modern points system began.
The Bottom Line
Max Verstappen has already done things in Formula 1 that no one his age has ever done, and he has done them while making it clear he is not satisfied with four titles. The 2026 rules reset is the toughest test of his career so far. Bet against him finishing on top again at your own risk.
Gear up for the number 1. A few fan favorites in stock right now:
- Max Verstappen RB16B Dutch GP 1:18 Diecast Model Car
- Red Bull Racing F1 2024 Team Vest
- Red Bull Racing Spielberg Austrian GP Hoodie
- Red Bull Racing Austria Spielberg GP Tee
- Red Bull Racing Austin GP Bucket Hat
See more in the Formula 1 hat collection. New driver spotlights drop every week.
