Max Verstappen was more comfortable talking about taking Red Bull’s 100th grand prix victory in Canada on Sunday than he was discussing the meaning of winning his own 41st; in reality, they are both achievements of great historical consequence.
Red Bull have moved into a select group of Formula 1 centurions, with only Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams ahead of them. It is quite the landmark for a team which only began its life in 2005, and won its first race in China in four years later.
In many ways, though, Verstappen’s is the more remarkable accomplishment. At the age of 25, he has equalled the victory tally achieved by one of F1’s greatest icons, Ayrton Senna, who was killed at Imola in 1994 at the age of 34.
Only four drivers are ahead of Verstappen in the all-time list – Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and of course Lewis Hamilton. The way he is going, Prost’s 51 could be surpassed this season, perhaps even Vettel’s 54.
It is an awe-inspiring position to be in at such a young age, and it speaks volumes for Verstappen’s talent. But if his name is now firmly established among the all-time greats of the sport – two of whom shared the podium with him in Montreal on Sunday, with Fernando Alonso and Hamilton either side of him – he is not at ease considering that status himself.
“I hate to compare different generations,” Verstappen said. “All I can say is when I was a little kid in go-karting, I was dreaming of being in F1 and I would never have dreamed of winning 41 grands prix. So to tie with Ayrton is incredible, but I hope it is not stopping here.”
It was left to his team principal Christian Horner to put Verstappen’s career so far into some kind of context.
“Part of him inside will be quite proud of that,” Horner said. “I don’t think he is one to show huge emotion. He is a very modest guy. He is very understated in many ways. But I think behind the scenes it will mean quite a lot to him.
“What we’re witnessing with Max is the emergence of another mega talent and you can start to talk about him in the same sentence as the greats now.
“I thought the podium today actually was very apt of the last couple of decades of F1 with Max, Fernando and Lewis up there. And he just keeps delivering at such a high level.
“The race he did today was fantastic but for me yesterday was outstanding in conditions that were continually changing. His ability to adapt at all points to the conditions, whatever tyre and grip level he had, was Max at his best.”
Landmarks for Verstappen, Red Bull and Newey
Verstappen set the foundations for this victory with a qualifying performance that was a fitting step towards the magnitude of the achievement he was to secure the following day.
In constantly changing conditions, Verstappen ended up 1.2 seconds clear of the field. There were caveats to the performance – especially that he was one of only three drivers to manage two flying laps in the final part of qualifying, so benefited from better tyre grip than, for example, Alonso and Hamilton. But that should not detract from the quality of his performance.
The race was more straightforward. Alonso and Hamilton were perhaps closer to Verstappen on pure pace than at any race so far this season. But the win was never in doubt.
It was Red Bull’s eighth straight victory this year and at the moment – as Hamilton pointed out after the race – they look capable of winning every remaining race this season. If they did, they would match Williams’ 114 victories and move into equal fourth place in the all-time list.
And there was another, less publicised landmark reached – Canada was the 200th win for Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s genius of a chief technical officer, the mastermind behind the team’s success and probably the greatest design mind F1 has ever seen.
Horner said the key to Red Bull’s success was “the people, the spirit, the culture, the attitude that we have. The way we go about racing, the desire, the passion, the commitment, it’s all of those aspects.
“We want to win and be competitive and everybody gives their best and they buy into that and you feel that energy in the factory. We’re different to other teams. It’s a racing team, just a big racing team.”
Chasing pack caught between optimism and realism
For all the crushing symbolism of the records achieved by Verstappen and his team, Canada did offer a chink of light to their competitors.
At every other race this season, bar the Australian Grand Prix that finished behind a safety car, Red Bull have finished more than 20 seconds ahead of their rivals. On Sunday on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Verstappen’s margin over Alonso was less than 10.
Whether this was because the track did not suit the Red Bull’s characteristics, or because upgrades on the Aston Martin and Mercedes – Aston’s for this weekend; Mercedes’ in Monaco last month – had closed the gap, or a combination of both, is up for debate.
Verstappen said he “didn’t think it was one of our best days”. He was struggling to generate tyre temperature, he said, and so lacking his usual grip. And Horner pointed out that the track has a small number of corners in which Red Bull could gain their usual advantage, all of them slow, not their strongest suit.
But Verstappen did allow: “I also know with their upgrades they improved, so they for sure got closer to us.”
Red Bull’s rivals, though, are not about to get too excited. Alonso did say he thought he could beat Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez to second in the championship. He is now only nine points behind after another difficult race for the Mexican, his third poor weekend in a row. But challenging Verstappen is a whole other matter.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: “We didn’t expect to perform in Canada because of how the car DNA is. It’s more (suited to) mid and high-speed corners. So it’s encouraging to be not so far away.
“But one must not forget Max is still having an easier time in the front, not cruising but still there is margin. So there is quite a gap to catch up.
“The margin is still too big to really think Max is under pressure. I don’t know how much it was this race – was it 0.2secs a lap? – but still far off.”
Aston Martin introduced a significant upgrade in Canada and Alonso said they had not had time to fully get on top of it. And after their major car redesign in Monaco two races ago, Mercedes have more upgrades coming for Silverstone in two races’ time and more again scheduled before the summer break.
“It’s just that the learnings have accelerated a lot since we changed some of the conceptual architecture,” Wolff said. “There should be decent steps coming in the next four races.”
Hamilton, too, is caught between optimism generated from recent progress and realism spawned by the sheer power of the Verstappen-Red Bull combination.
“It’s been a great weekend for us,” he said. “We are slowly chipping away. The Astons took a bit of a step ahead this weekend with the upgrade but we are working on having some more.
“We knew this would not be our strongest weekend as we struggle in the slower-speed corners, and that’s where I was losing to Fernando and Max on traction.
“We have a lot of work to do to add rear downforce and efficiency to the car. Max was a little bit gone. But our paces were a little bit closer today so we’re going in the right direction.”
A meaningful and storied podium
For all three drivers, the context and meaning of the all-star nature of the podium was obvious. And all share the desire of those watching for closer battles to come.
“Racing them is one of the best things out there,” Verstappen said. “When we can share a podium together – we have done it together a few times – it is great.”
“I really enjoy these battles and these podiums,” Alonso said. “There is a lot of respect and talent when you fight against Max and Lewis. It is a very intense and fair and respectful battle.”
Hamilton said: “It is just a privilege to be up here fighting these two who have done incredible in their careers and this is quite an iconic top three. I don’t know if there has been a top three like this before.
“There is a lot of respect between us. I am really hoping we will have a more level playing between our cars and have a more exciting race in the future.
“We have some work to do. I am happy to be back in the mix and I am hoping we can have it more level so we can get back to some of the good races we had in 2021. And to have all three of us in a super-tight battle would be sick.”
