Max Verstappen is on the verge of taking another step to greatness, as the Dutchman is likely to win his third drivers’ world championship this weekend in Qatar.
The 26-year-old needs just three more points to wrap up a hat-trick of drivers’ titles, with a sixth-place finish in Saturday’s sprint race enough to be crowned – regardless of where nearest challenger and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finishes.
There are still fives races to go after Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, outlining the level of domination Verstappen has had this season. He has finished on the podium in 15 out of 16 races, and could yet set the record for most races in a season (he is currently on 13 – two behind his own record of 15 from last year).
The Red Bull star’s success follows that of Lewis Hamilton, who dominated the sport between 2014 and 2020. In comparison to the Brit, Verstappen doesn’t carry the same off-track aura you’d expect from Formula One’s superstar.
Verstappen’s character is very direct and he says what he thinks, but though he often maintains an air of normalcy in terms of his persona – he still lives a lavish lifestyle and spends his vast fortune on cars, games and even a plane.
Max Verstappen is just three points away from being crowned a triple world champion
Verstappen has dominated the sport this year, winning 13 of the 16 races to date in his Red Bull
He doesn’t carry the same level of superstar aura as Lewis Hamilton (left) off-track but he still lives a lavish lifestyle and is on a salary worth £50m per year – matched by his British rival
Verstappen has his own private jet which he reportedly bought off Richard Branson for £12m
He also had a model girlfriend in Kelly Piquet – who previously dated ex-F1 driver Daniil Kvyat
It comes as no surprise given that he earns a salary worth around a whopping £50million per year – the joint highest in the sport alongside Hamilton.
The Dutchman lives in Monaco together with his model girlfriend Kelly Piquet, daughter of F1 great Nelson, with Max also owning two Bengal cats called Jimmy and Sass – though he once joked he would call them Lewis and Toto after his Mercedes rivals.
Many of his fellow drivers, including Hamilton, Ricciardo and Lando Norris also have properties in Monaco.
Verstappen lives in a luxury £13m apartment – which he doesn’t own – that overlooks the Mediterranean as he often posts videos of his workouts on his large balcony, as well as jogging in the local neighbourhood.
While Hamilton is often seen with celebrities and attending events such as the Met Gala, outside of Formula One the most you see of Verstappen is him honing his craft on racing simulators or training in Monaco.
Verstappen gets involved in online racing and is well known in the sim racing community. Alongside the likes of Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Alex Albon, he would do twitch streams during Covid of himself racing online.
Verstappen spends much of his time off-track honing his skills on his racing simulators
Verstappen can often be seen in his Red Bull branded jet ski in the water around Monaco
He has an impressive car collection including a Porsche 911 GTS R3 (pictured) which he bought after winning his first race in 2016
A suited and booted Verstappen arrives at a Monaco awards ceremony in style back in 2020
According to the South China Morning Post, his racing simulator set-up costs up to £29,000 and is so valuable that nobody is allowed to go near it.
His love for racing simulators was so much that reports came out that he was looking to build one in his private jet.
This was something he denied, but said he would look to build in a motorhome which he would use to travel between races in Europe, as per Autosport.
Verstappen might also be spotted out on the water in Monaco on his Red Bull branded jet ski which, according to Crash, is worth around £16,000.
Motor racing isn’t the only thing he’s flying high in as in 2020 he bought a private jet, reportedly from Virgin boss British business magnate Sir Richard Branson.
He paid around £12m for the Falcon-900EX which is often used for long-haul races and often brings other Monaco-based F1 drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo with.
The plane also has a customised exterior, with a matt finish and the Verstappen logo of a lion – the national animal of the Netherlands – on the tail fin.
Verstappen also has an incredible car collection worth an estimated total of £5m.
His collection started off with a Renault Clio gifted by his parents, before a Renault R.S 01 worth around £328,000 was his first purchase.
He treated himself to a Porsche 911 GT3 RS after winning his first race in Spain 2016, and has since added a whole bunch of supercars to his collection.
Verstappen owns four Aston Martins including the DB11 – the road-approved version of James Bond’s car in the film Spectre, a 2018 Vantage, a DBS Superleggera and his ‘crown jewel’ the Valkyrie hypercar worth £2.2m.
Verstappen’s off-track lifestyle is different to Hamilton who is close with celebrities and attends events including the Met Gala
Verstappen has previously shared workout videos from his apartment in Monaco (right) as well as jogging in the local neighbourhood
He has spent time off track with a number of other drivers including George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon (left to right)
Verstappen reportedly bought his private jet off Richard Branson (pictured) for £12million
Verstappen and Piquet, pictured together in a helicopter, started dating at the end of 2020
He also owns a Ferrari 488 Pista, a Ferrari Monza SP2 and a Mercedez Benz C63 S AMG.
While he lives the high lifestyle of what you would expect from a Formula One driver, on the track he is staking his claim as one of the greatest drivers of all time, and being the son of ex-F1 driver Jos and excellent kart-racer Sophie Kumpen, it appears that he had all the genes to succeed in the sport.
Verstappen won his first kart race aged seven, aged nine he was a champion in Belgium and the Netherlands and would secure more domestic titles.
His father Jos, who famously drove alongside Michael Schumacher in the German’s first title-winning season at Benneton in 1994, spent a lot of time in his son’s junior career from preparing his chassis and engines and they would test multiple times a week.
They would drive upwards of 10,000 kilometres a year with each other in a van across the Netherlands, Belgium and beyond.
Jos was an assertive father figure, and his method of ‘tough love’ meant Max had to learn the hard way growing up.
Max was once told that he would be a bus driver instead of a F1 star growing up, while one famous story often told by the young Dutchman is being left at a service station by his father after crashing into a rival he was impatiently trying to repass at the 2012 CIK-FIA KZ2 World Cup.
‘It was a bit stupid and unnecessary’, Max admitted. ‘So I crashed. No world championship.
Verstappen could match the number of championships won by Kelly’s father Nelson (pictured)
Verstappen’s father Jos (centre) also drove in F1 and was Michael Schumacher’s (right) team-mate in 1994
‘My dad invested so much time already the years before, preparing the engines, making sure that once I stepped up to that category, that everything would be ready to go. So I was of course upset, but my dad was really upset and disappointed in me.
‘He broke down the tent, everything, he threw it in the van. I had to pick up the kart with a friend of mine on the track after the race because my dad said I had to do it myself.
‘We sat in the van on our way back home. I wanted to talk to my dad about what happened, my opinion about the incident, but my dad didn’t want to talk to me.
‘I kept trying and at one point he stopped at a fuel station and he’s like ‘Get out, I don’t want to talk to you anymore’.’
Max’s mother was in a separate car a few minutes behind and Jos said he never intended to abandon the teenager. In fact, he went back to pick him up, but ‘didn’t say a word to him’ as they drove about 1,800 kilometres back home.
At 17 years, 166 days, he became the youngest driver to ever start a race at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. At 18 years and 228 days, he became the youngest driver to ever win a race at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix – in big part due to his future rival Lewis Hamilton colliding with then team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The first time he had a car that could challenge for the world title, he took the race to the wire against Hamilton in a controversial finale to the 2021 season at Abu Dhabi.
Jos spent a lot of time in developing Max’s early career and it was no surprise he started early with the younger Verstappen making his debut in 2015 aged 17
Many fans were frustrated over how Hamilton lost the title, after a late safety car allowed Verstappen to pass the Brit on fresher tyres on the last lap when the Mercedes driver was cruising to what would have been a record eighth championship.
Two years later, he could join legends including Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and Jack Brabham to win three world titles.
It could also follow the feat set by the father of his model girlfriend Kelly Piquet.
Nelson Piquet won his three titles in the 1980s (1981, 1983 and 1987) – though in recent years the Brazilian has come under the spotlight for making racist and homophobic comments about Hamilton – in which he received a £780,000 fine.
His model girlfriend Kelly had previously been in a relationship with Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, who made 110 Formula One starts between 2013 and 2020.
There’s a cruel sense of irony that in 2016, Kvyat was booted out of his Red Bull drive and relegated to Torro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri) and replaced by the promoted Verstappen. Then three years later, Kvyat and Piquet’s relationship came to an end in December 2019, with the Brazilian model publicly dating Verstappen since January 2021.
Kelly, 34, is often seen at the races supporting her man, and is always one of the first to celebrate with Verstappen after his many wins – a figure which stands at 48, with only Hamilton, Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost ahead of him.
Despite all of his success and fame, Verstappen has admitted that F1’s thirst for growth sometimes makes him consider ‘whether it is all worth it’ and there have been reports that he could consider retiring at an early age, compared to the likes of Hamilton, now 38, and double world champion Fernando Alonso who is 42.
Verstappen has previously questioned whether ‘it’s all worth it’ in terms of his F1 career, and he is currently contracted at Red Bull until 2028
‘I’m worried about the sport I have always enjoyed,’ said Verstappen, whose current contract with Red Bull is until 2028. ‘I still do, but only to a certain extent.
‘It’s not that I’m totally against change, like some people claim. But those changes have to be benefit Formula 1.
‘Why do you have to change things when they’re going well? I think a traditional qualifying session is a great format, it doesn’t all have to revolve around money.
‘People might think, ‘Well, he makes a lot of money, what is that guy complaining about?’ But it’s about your wellbeing, how you experience things and not how much you make.
‘I feel like I have to do too much and skip other things [I enjoy doing], so I sometimes think, “Is still worth it?”‘