On Saturday night, when Max Verstappen wrapped up a third consecutive drivers’ championship, it felt like it had been coming for months.
As I reflected on three of the races that I felt stood out during his record-breaking season, Miami came to mind because it really appeared to break the resolve of Sergio Perez and kicked off an immense run of 10 consecutive race victories that really did ensure it was very much a matter of when he would win the title, rather than if.
It’s easy to say now that Perez was never offering up a realistic challenge, but that belittles some of the more remarkable aspects of what makes Verstappen so special. The facts are that the two drivers shared two wins apiece from the opening four rounds, and although Verstappen had to recover from a qualifying issue in Jeddah, Perez had the pace to respond during that race and repel his teammate’s charge.
Then in Baku, Perez also managed to beat Verstappen in both the Sprint and the main grand prix itself. Sure, Verstappen says he doesn’t really like street circuits and they don’t suit him, but he’s still better than most in the Red Bull regardless of the track he’s driving on, and there have been street circuits since then where Perez has been nowhere near able to get as close to his teammate as he was at the start of the season.
There’s no better example of that than Singapore – one of the other races that stood out as one of Verstappen’s best. There are some similarities to Baku, and it’s a venue that Perez won at 12 months ago, so he clearly can feel strong there. But this time, despite a car that was clearly not to either driver’s liking, Verstappen finished a massive 33 seconds ahead of Perez on the road, before a five-second time penalty for the latter made it even bigger.
But the most recent time Perez beat Verstappen – yes, Baku is the last time the Mexican has finished ahead out of the two – was actually the pivotal moment where it all clicked for Verstappen. Even if he was beaten on track, he had won a different battle when it came to understanding the RB19.
“It was when I was behind after the pit stop with the Safety Car,” Verstappen said when I asked him why Baku was so central to the rest of his season. “Of course, I knew that it was going to be very hard to pass. I was trying a lot of things. Some worked, that’s why it was a bit of an up and down stint.
“I was just trying a lot of different combinations on the wheel, to get a bit more of an understanding (of the car), because it was still so early in the season, probably we were still not fully on top of a few things. Towards the end of the race, I found my rhythm, I found my preferred balance, and it helped to just find a little bit more of an edge.
Baku wasn’t one of Verstappen’s standout 2023 races in terms of results, but it proved to be incredibly important in helping him understand the RB19. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
“There’s a few things coming together more, and having a good run as well. And also in the beginning of the season, we were mainly driving on street circuits which I think in general are a little bit less enjoyable, and then you get to tracks where you have a lot of fast corners and it’s just better to drive.”
Even Verstappen suggests the tracks themselves played a part, but in experimenting with items such as brake balance and power unit settings – while able to clearly see Perez in front and how those changes impacted the relative performance between the two of them – he ensured the tracks that were, in his words, “a little bit less enjoyable” became just as lucrative as his more favored venues.
“I jumped out of the car after the race, and of course P2 is not where I want to be, but I was like, ‘I actually learned a lot throughout the race’. It was actually very useful to do.
“It’s not like I suddenly turned the car upside down, but little details can make the difference.”
It’s working on those little details and being able to adjust to them that makes the best drivers stand out. Perhaps Verstappen of a few years ago would have been run a bit more closely by his teammate at some other venues or even beaten by a McLaren in Qatar if it wasn’t for that ongoing development.
Even Jos Verstappen has to admit that the consistency that his son has found is a remarkable trait.
“I know he had something special, but then Formula 1 was a different world and a long way away,” Verstappen’s father says. “Finally he got his chance, and the rest is up to Max. What he’s doing at the moment is unbelievable, and I’m just very proud of this year. How many wins and how he manages to be there every weekend again.”
That consistency started in that final stint in Azerbaijan, and Verstappen himself acknowledges it was a weekend that improved him more than a cruise to victory usually does.
“I’m always out there just to do the best I can, and of course sometimes I’m not happy with the performance or how the weekend was going, but I always try to be perfect and become better every single race weekend I enter,” he says. “Of course some of them you maybe learn a bit more than others. Baku, maybe it was not fantastic – I didn’t win the race – but I learned a lot and sometimes that’s more important than winning the race as we had a great run.”
Singapore might have interrupted it, but the performance there from the driver was still strong, and with another two wins having followed it’s fair to say we’re still seeing the full impact of Verstappen’s gains this season. The scary part is how many more there could still be ahead, too.
