Easy to take for granted with the way he has captured the F1 circuit (ninth consecutive race win on Sunday), the enduring question these days is where Max Verstappen ranks amongst the sport’s all-time greats.
Verstappen’s victory in the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix was his 9th in a row, equalling the record for consecutive race wins by Sebastian Vettel in 2013. The complaints that his dominance makes Formula One racing too predictable seem to outweigh a more significant issue of where his superior performance places him in the history of Formula One racing.
Verstappen, already a double World Champion, is on his way to a third title in a row. His achievements at a relatively young career already rank him amongst the sport’s all-time greats, and even though his Red Bull car is superior to any of his rivals, Verstappen delivers nearly faultless performances race after race. The relentless consistency has never been seen before in Formula One.
Teammate Sergio Perez is driving the same car, but Verstappen has not only beaten Perez over the past nine races, Perez has failed to finish on the podium in five of those races and has come in second in two of these races. That outcome demonstrates that even with the best car at your disposal, you still have to deliver world-class performances to beat the best racing drivers in the world, and that is what Verstappen is doing. Moreover, perhaps the most stunning aspect of F1 2023 is the ease with which Verstappen accomplishes that feat.
Then there is the inability of Red Bull’s rivals to challenge Verstappen with a car or driver. Mercedes, for example, gambled on a controversial no-side-pod design for the 2022 season, and even when the concept clearly wasn’t fast enough to challenge for victories and certainly not World Titles, they kept faith in this concept at the start of the 2023 season. It was only after the opening race of this season that Mercedes admitted the shortcoming. The outcome means that neither 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton nor highly rated George Russell is challenging Red Bull/Verstappen in 2023.
Meanwhile, Ferrari is facing issues at the team management level. The Prancing Horse fielded a fast car last season, but poor race strategy and internal mistakes cost them dearly, and Team Principal Matteo Binotto was dismissed at season’s end. New Team Principal Fred Vasseur has fared no better so far this season. Ferrari has dropped back in performance, so much so that it is currently out of the top four teams on the circuit.
While there is no doubt about Max Verstappen’s greatness, the state of Formula One racing is clear: he has no challenger. Because of that, Formula One fans have to wonder how much a weak competitor field contributes to his historic pace.
