Fraser MasefieldMax Verstappen could still be the man to watch in this new era of Formula One racing.
The Dutch maestro has seen regulation changes and teammates come and go.
Regardless, he has still remained in the championship mix until the final grands prix of the the last six seasons.
And he’s won four of them on the bounce from 2021-24!
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Sunday’s season opening Australian Grand Prix is a case in point.
Verstappen’s mega drive from the back of the grid to sixth place was nothing short of exceptional. He’s not going away.
And whilst all the media talk was of Mercedes, George Russell and a Ferrari resurgence, the four-time world champion went largely unheralded.
Disrespectful? Perhaps. But Verstappen won’t mind one bit going under the radar yet again.
It wasn’t his fault that a systems failure locked up his wheels and sent him into a spin during qualifying that led to a back of the grid race start.
We’ve seen it time and again. He can win from the back as easily as he can win from the front.
The 2024 Brazilian GP – coming from 17th to win. And Hungary 2022 making up ten places to win.
Energy Harvesting and ‘push to pass’ IndyCar style are the new buzz words.
Max can adapt, though. It’s a bit like Neo fighting Morpheus in the Matrix, if you’ve seen the movie! Adaptation, improvisation… Impressive.
Could he be ‘the one’ yet again?
Did he even enjoy the racing though, carving his way through the field yet again when the chips were stacked against him?
“The overtakes were fun but I’m also racing cars that are two seconds slower” 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/mUA14L5PEO
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 8, 2026
“No, not really,” said Verstappen in the media pen afterwards.
“I mean yeah, of course the overtakes were fun, but I mean I’m also racing cars that are two seconds slower, you know?
“So for me, it’s just clearing the traffic. It sounds maybe weird but it’s just how I see it. It’s not really a fair fight, you know.
“So I just try to go through as clean as possible and try to get into my rhythm at one point when I cleared the midfield.
“But we had too much degradation, we were just really graining a lot on the tyres and that compromised a lot the rest of the race.
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“We thought with the hard compounds that it would be better today for us but unfortunately that compound somehow didn’t work today.
“Overall the team still did a great job: it was a decent comeback from P20 and we will work as a team to close the gap further.”
Let’s not also forget that before his retirement on lap 12 of the race, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar, who qualified third, was also well in the mix.
What will happen when the wheels are once again set in motion in China if technical issues don’t hinder Red Bull Racing?
Write them off at your peril!
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Craig Scarborough