In the high-octane world of Formula One, where speed and strategy collide on the asphalt of the globe’s most challenging circuits, a new chapter is being written by Dutch sensation Max Verstappen. As the 2024 season shifts into gear, the reigning triple world champion has already clinched victories in the first two races and he has done so in dominant fashion, making his pursuit of his fourth straight crown almost a formality.
The annals of the sport are chocked full of tales of dominance, but few have matched the sheer consistency and excellence demonstrated by Super Max. Last year, he broke the record for most consecutive Grand Prix victories and barely six months on from that historic achievement, he finds himself on the brink of history once again. But who joins the 26-year-old star on the list of the three longest-winning streaks in history?
Max Verstappen – 10 Races (Miami 2023 – Italy 2023)
This season, Max Verstappen has ruled with an iron fist, winning the first two races with margins of 13 seconds in Saudi Arabia and by a mighty 22 seconds in the curtain raiser in Bahrain. As such, websites providing free bets offers and Formula One odds like Bet365’s bet £10 get £30 have made the reigning champion a whopping 1/8 favourite already. Last season, he was still heavily favoured, but it looked as though he might have a fight on his hands when he and teammate Sergio Perez stood at two victories each after the first four Grand Prix.
However, from the fifth race in Miami onward, Verstappen took over. Between then and the Italian Grand Prix in September, the Dutchman won ten straight races, all but wrapping up the championship before it truly had a chance to begin and breaking the record for most consecutive wins in the process. In just a matter of weeks, he could be set to beat it again.
Sebastian Vettel – 9 Races (Belgium 2013 – Brazil 2013)
Before Verstappen’s ascendancy, it was former Red Bull supremo Sebastian Vettel who epitomised Formula One supremacy. The German maestro embarked on a mesmerising run of nine consecutive victories in the latter half of the 2013 season. Heading into the Belgian Grand Prix that year, he still had three drivers – namely Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton – all with a chance of catching him. However, at the culmination of the Brazilian Grand Prix nine races later, the recently retired star had won each and every one of them, romping to his fourth straight championship in the process.
His dominant spell came to a grinding halt at the start of the 2014 season as a host of regulation changes led to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton becoming the sport’s dominant force. But no one will forget the stranglehold that Vettel once held on the sport of Formula One.
Max Verstappen – 9 Races (Japan 2023 – Present)
Carlos Sainz was the man to end Verstappen’s streak last season with his victory in Singapore. But just a fortnight later, Verstappen was back on the top step of the podium in Japan. And he hasn’t tasted defeat since. He won seven straight races to end last season as a triple world champion, finishing with more than twice as many points as second-place man Sergio Perez. He has since won the first two races of the 2024 season to take his streak to nine. Should he win in Australia and Japan – which is fourth on the calendar this year rather than 16th like last year – then he will have broken his own record barely a year on from setting it.