Call him Maximum Verstappen: F1’s runaway leader takes dominance to a new level

Verstappen won both the main F1 race and the shorter sprint race from pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix, topped every section of qualifying and led the only practice session on his way to collecting a fifth straight win, and a seventh in nine races so far this season.

Make that eight in 11 if you include the two sprint races so far, which he’s split with teammate Sergio Perez, to give Red Bull a clean sweep of every Grand Prix.

But Perez, who has won the other two main F1 races for the untouchable-looking Red Bull team, is very much taking a back seat this season.

Verstappen crushed the competition to such an extent at his team’s home track in Spielberg that he even surprised himself.

“It’s been a pretty incredible weekend,” he 25-year-old Dutchman said. “Something I didn’t expect.”He was probably the only one who didn’t expect it, for Verstappen’s numbers are piling up as fast as his peerless driving.He now counts 42 F1 wins, one more than late great Ayrton Senna, and stands alone in fifth place all-time in F1.

Next in Verstappen’s sights is four-time F1 champion Alain Prost, who is fourth with 51 — one of only four drivers in history to reach the 50 mark.

With 13 races left, starting next weekend at the British GP, it is realistic to consider Verstappen could beat his own F1 record of 15 victories from last year and surpass Prost in the process.

If this prospect sounds like an exaggeration, the statistics show otherwise. Since finishing second at last year’s Austrian GP, Verstappen has won 16 out of 20 races.

Applying slightly under that same 80 percent win ratio for the rest of this campaign would see Verstappen ending it with 17 wins and move up to 52 overall.

Doing so would put him one win behind the now-retired Sebastian Vettel and over halfway toward seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton’s record of 103 career wins.

Hamilton recorded his last win at the end of 2021, at the age of 36, so it’s difficult to put a number on how many Verstappen might win if he stays in the series as long.

A third world title does look inevitable, given that he already leads Perez by 81 points and third-place Fernando Alonso — who hasn’t won a race for 10 years — by 98.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who is also 25 and fiercely raced against Verstappen in their junior karting days, described his dominance this way.

“I’m not in Max’s race. He’s in another one, all on his own,” Leclerc said. “He is too fast to hold back. So there’s no point in trying.”

So there’s an increasing predictability about Verstappen’s third F1 title, one which would move him level with Senna and one behind Vettel and Prost.

Verstappen likes to play down his dominance and does not particularly like talking about records and achievements while he’s still competing.

But even he couldn’t deny that he has the best car.

“We could do everything we wanted,” he said. “Like we planned it.”

Or like he planned it, more to the point, for it was Verstappen’s decision to come in with two laps remaining to fit new tires in order to compete for the fastest lap.

“I saw the gap and said We have to pit,’” Verstappen said. “From the outside maybe it looks like a big risk, but when you’re in the car it doesn’t feel like a risk at all.”

Although it only gave Verstappen one extra point, it defined what his racing is all about: getting the “Maximum” he can.