Motorsports
The dune party for Formula 1 ruler Verstappen
Second-placed Sergio Perez (l) and winner Max Verstappen celebrate together on the podium. photo
© Benoit Doppagne/Belga/dpa
It’s his home game. It’s getting loud again. There will be a lot of celebrations again. If everything goes normally, with a victorious Max Verstappen again. His dominance has Schumacher features.
Puffs of smoke will drift over the dunes again, the bass will pound across the beach – the Orange Army is set to party all the time. Verstappen, born in Hasselt, Belgium, triggered what Germany has been missing for a long time. A Formula 1 boom.
Verstappen wants one thing above all: racing
The contract with the racetrack, which returned to the calendar in 2021, was prematurely extended up to and including 2025. “The Dutch Grand Prix has quickly established itself on the calendar as a fan favorite,” said Formula 1 Managing Director Stefano Domenicali when the announcement was made at the time. The fact that Verstappen won in 2021 and 2022 serves as a further attraction accelerator.
From a marketing point of view and compared to the previous dominator Lewis Hamilton, expert Jens Falkenau sees the 25-year-old Dutchman as the “favourite of the moment”. “Verstappen is fully focused on the sport and victory,” said the Vice President of Market Research at Nielsen Sports: “However, for a long time Hamilton proved to be the more dazzling personality, who also made headlines off the race track. Verstappen is fully focused on the sport and the Victory concentrated. For some fans an ideal constellation, for others (especially female) he still has potential to sharpen his personality brand.”
It can at least be doubted whether Verstappen wants that too. Verstappen wants one thing above all: racing. The son of former Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen is not like Hamilton, who also indulges in fashion and music. Verstappen is also not known as a political pilot with earth-shattering motives, like Hamilton or ex-driver Sebastian Vettel, especially in the last few years of his career. When Verstappen is not in a racing car on a race track, Verstappen is racing in the simulator.
This pure racing passion also reminds the two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen of Michael Schumacher. “It wasn’t just his job, it wasn’t just a hobby, it was his lifestyle. And I see that in Max too,” said the now 54-year-old Finn to the RacingNews365.com portal. “Both are undoubtedly as different as two people can be,” said former Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug of the German Press Agency to compare seven-time champion Schumacher with Verstappen: “What connects them is their talent and their uncompromising dedication to him Sport they love, and the vehicle and team that are better than everyone else in the field at the time of their dominance.”
World title for the Dutchman only a matter of form
The fact that Verstappen becomes world champion for the third time in a row in 2023 is more or less just a formality. Going into the Dutch Grand Prix, he has a stifling 125-point lead over his Mexican Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez.
The way he dominates his competition this year also has features of Michael Schumacher’s era of superiority at Ferrari. “Max Verstappen drives devastatingly,” headlined the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” after Verstappen’s victory before the summer break in Spa-Francorchamps. Vocabulary that was also often used by Schumacher.
If Verstappen now also wins the third edition in Zandvoort after returning, he en passant equals Vettel’s record: nine wins in a row. Vettel succeeded in 2013, in his fourth year as a world champion in the Red Bull.
Verstappen has now celebrated a total of 45 Grand Prix victories. He has been driving since 2015. At the first races he was just 17 years old. Verstappen matured as a teenager, he managed his first race success in his 24th attempt. Zandvoort will be its 176th Grand Prix. “I’m looking forward to the second half of the season,” said Verstappen after a little rest during the summer break: “And what could be better than getting started again in the Netherlands.”