The two-time world champion Max Verstappen just got his 45th win this week at the legendary Belgian track Spa. The Dutchman has dominated the whole 2023 season; till now, he has won 11 of 13 races before the summer break. The win at Spa was his eighth straight win this season.
If Max returns to the sport with the same amount of momentum after the summer break, winning his home race in the Netherlands, he would break ex-F1 champion Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine straight wins. This record was also set amidst a dominant era by a Red Bull driver as well; it was with its then-star Sebastian Vettel.
Max Verstappen reveals big hint about his long-term F1 future
Max Verstappen, a star of Red Bull Racing, claimed that his winning streak in Formula 1 keeps his “fire” burning and that he is enjoying his run in F1 so far. Due to a five-grid-place penalty for a fifth gearbox, Verstappen started from sixth place in the Belgian Grand Prix. However, he took the lead at the conclusion of lap 17 and defeated teammate Sergio Perez by 22 seconds.
The leading team in the tournament has now won eight games in a row this year. Sebastian Vettel, who has a record of nine straight triumphs, is just one victory ahead of him. With 314 points, he leads the drivers’ standings, followed by his teammate Perez with 189 points.
In a recent interview with Sky Sports, Max opened up about his F1 career and said: “I’m definitely enjoying the moment but at the same time I know that this one at one point will stop, so we need to enjoy keep learning keep trying to improve and I’m trying to implement it again for the next race,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
“This keeps the fire going. If I have to rock up and I have no chance of winning then the fire starts to go away.
How can Max Verstappen beat Sebastian Vettel’s record at Dutch GP?
Formula 1 heads for a summer vacation but leaves a question in the minds of the viewers: will the Red Bull prodigy break Sebastian Vettel’s 9-win-in-a-row record?
Sebastian Vettel was Red Bull’s golden boy back in the 2010s; he debuted with a drive for BMW Sauber in 2007, replacing Robert Kubica. Seb was new to the track and the sport, but he crushed everyone’s expectations by taking the fourth position in his first-ever career qualifying. Even though he finished in P8, he found himself dropping to P11 due to a mistake.
This single race made him the youngest driver to score points back then. Red Bull signed him for their sister team, Torro Rosso, and he crushed it in Italy by winning and becoming the youngest driver to win a Grand Prix.
One needs to remember that this was him driving a Torro Rosso, with which he beat the likes of McLaren and even Red Bull themselves. Deservingly, in 2009, Vettel received a promotion to Red Bull.
From 2010 through 2013, Vettel won four straight championships with Red Bull, the first of which made him the youngest World Champion in the history of the sport. He achieved the most straight race victories in a row with nine in 2013. And this is the record that current Red Bull star driver Max Verstappen is chasing.
It’s highly unlikely that Max will lose out on the win at his home Grand Prix in the Netherlands. But at the end of the day, it’s Formula 1, a sport where a single driver finds himself on the track during a restart, and you never know what could happen.
What do you think about Max breaking the record? And do let us know your thoughts on the remarkable career of Sebastian Vettel in the comment section down below.
