The statement leaves no room for doubt: “Max Verstappen has had an incredible season from start to finish, he has made no mistakes and has driven at a very high level, he has had one of the best seasons ever seen in F1.” The words were from Sergio Checo Pérez, the boxing neighbor and his first rival, who has suffered like no one else from the tyranny of the three-time champion, being the first element of comparison (for driving the same car) and the defeated runner-up.
At only 26 years old, Max Verstappen is the second youngest three-time champion in history. His crown, achieved on Saturday in the Sprint race in Qatar (and confirmed with the victory in the Sunday race, the 14th of the year), only confirms that the Dutchman is one of the best drivers in history, who He is on his way to breaking all the molds and shattering all records, including the 7 titles of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.
But what makes it so good, apart from having the best car on the grid, a Red Bull RB19 light years ahead of the competition? His rivals and those close to him respond.
For Christian Horner, head of the Red Bull team, there is no doubt: Mad Max is a unique driver who uses his skills in a superior car; There is an amalgamation of reasons that make it unbeatable. "There is this inner hunger, this determination and this enormous capacity that he knows how to channel," the Englishman analyzed.
According to Carlos Sainz, the only driver who this year has been able to beat him in a long race (in Singapore, a bad GP for Red Bull), "it is naive to think that [his superiority] is just a matter of the car, Max has a very competitive but he knows how to take advantage of it and doesn't make mistakes," the man from Madrid explained to this newspaper.
"Perhaps their great advantage is that they have a margin, they don't beat us in the qualifications by a tenth and then we go the whole race with undercuts and fighting strategies... No... It's that they have a margin, and the only race that they didn't have was Singapore and "We saw them make mistakes in set-up, in driving and strategies and suddenly they can be beaten because they have no margin."
Verstappen's dominance has had as its communicating vessel the questioning of the capabilities of Checo Pérez, who had dropped to 177 points before arriving at the Qatar event. The Mexican has had no choice but to admit his inability to maintain the level of his teammate. "I think Max's level has remained there and I haven't been able to. He's driving at a level that I haven't seen in F1 since I've been here, he doesn't make mistakes and he really goes to the limit all the time," commented the from Guadalajara to Dazn.
"There are hard moments, it is not easy to be in all this environment, under all that pressure, and as Max's teammate, it is not easy," Pérez concluded, justifying Verstappen's superiority.
His father, former driver Jos Verstappen, the person who knows him best, also spoke about Max's dominance. "Max is working hard, focused when he should be, he has been working with the same engineers for seven years, they know each other very well, and it is a very positive thing that he has people around him who want to work with him." For the former pilot, there is no He doubts that Max has no limits in sight. "I don't know what he can do better than this."
Verstappen's 2023 has been overwhelming, the most authoritative title he has achieved of the three: he has been proclaimed champion six races in advance (like Schumacher in 2002), having achieved 82% of victories (14 in 17 races), an effectiveness higher than that of the great Schumacher of 2004 (72%, 13 of 18), with a record of consecutive wins (10, from Miami to Italy), without any real threat, since his immediate pursuer, Checo Pérez, was soon left behind more than two races away (after the victory in Montmeló).
Their superiority, not only numerically, has been palpable on the track, with races leading alone or with large advantages at the finish line.
