For Max Verstappen, the path was quickly paved. Under the tutelage of his father Jos, the native of Hasselt in Belgium quickly understood that his destiny would be Formula 1. Thus, the family worked in this direction sacrificing many things from the childhood of young Max, always focused on the races. This is how he became the youngest driver in history by starting the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at 17 years, 5 months and 15 days.
Since then, the man who then wore the colors of Toro Rosso has grown up a lot, in every sense of the word. Almost ten years later, he marked the history of his sport with his sporting prowess, such as his record of 19 victories in one season (2023) or his three world titles won, while he could soon add more a fourth on his list.
Verstappen vs Schumacher/Hamilton/Vettel
This time we decided to compare the Red Bull driver to some of his counterparts who have won at least three world titles during his career. The most recent cases are Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
At 27, everyone had been crowned at least once. Among the three, only Sebastian Vettel did better than Max Verstappen with his four world crowns acquired consecutively between 2010 and 2013. A statistic that the title holder could soon equal, in the event of his coronation this year, also with Red Bull. For comparison, Lewis Hamilton only had one (2008 with McLaren) while Michael Schumacher had two (1994 and 1995 with Benetton). Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost could have been taken into account for this comparison but neither of them had won the title at 27 years old (28 for the first and 30 for the second).
© Frederic Le Floc’h / DPPI
In terms of victories, none of the three selected champions does better than Max Verstappen who peaks at 61. His closest pursuer is Sebastian Vettel with 39 while Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton follow behind with 27 and 17 respectively.
As for pole positions, the Dutchman does not dominate. It must be said that it was an exercise in which he was a little more delicate. If he has 40 to his name, he only had three to his name before the start of his glorious era in 2021. In this area, Sebastian Vettel was ahead at the same age with 45 poles against 19 for Lewis Hamilton and 17 for Michael Schumacher.
Ahead of the podiums, best laps but…
In other areas of the game such as podiums, best laps, number of points finishes, Max Verstappen largely dominates his counterparts. To his credit, he has 109 podiums, 45 more than Sebastian Vettel, 55 than Michael Schumacher and 67 than Lewis Hamilton.
Ditto for the best laps in the race with 32 for the current championship leader followed by Michael Schumacher (28), Sebastian Vettel (23) and Lewis Hamilton (11). As for points finishes, Verstappen largely leads the way with 168 in 203 Grands Prix. Sebastien Vettel was 96 in 128 at the same age, Lewis Hamilton 68 in 90, and Michael Schumacher 67 in 101.
“Dominant” figures which are necessarily explained by the fact that Max Verstappen had a premature start to his career unlike these other drivers who all had to wait until at least their twenties with the exception of Sebastian Vettel who competed in his first Grand Price (US 2007) just days before his 20th birthday.
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