Max only needs two more wins to break Sebastian Vettel’s consecutive win record.
It might be tough to tune into Formula 1 every Sunday knowing that Max Verstappen and Red Bull are going to dominate, as if every other team is running Formula 3 cars. However, we are watching a historic performance by the Red Bull team, especially Verstappen. The Dutchman just won his eighth straight grand prix, looking to break the consecutive win record, as Red Bull took home a one-two podium finish in Belgium.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc actually started from pole position at Spa but only because Verstappen suffered a five-place penalty during qualifying. And while Leclerc had a perfect start, with excellent reaction time and great defensive driving, there was no denying the speed and performance of the two Red Bulls.
Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, started P2 on the grid and, despite Leclerc’s best efforts, overtook the Ferrari for first place in the first lap. Verstappen was up into fourth before the start of the second lap. They simply sliced through the grid like every other driver was standing still.
Eventually, Verstappen made his way into P2, behind his teammate, and there was no stopping him. I’m not sure whether the team told Perez to make way for Verstappen, or the Dutchman was just that much quicker, but the Red Bull drivers’ positions were reversed early on and there was nothing anyone could do to change that. The two Red Bulls cruised to an easy one-two finish, with Leclerc finishing a distant third.
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Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton had himself a good day, finishing fourth, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished fifth, keeping him in third place in the driver’s standings with 149 points. Which means Alonso is only 40 points behind the second place Perez, which is a gap that can be closed in just a couple of races. However, Verstappen leads the entire pack with a whopping 314 points. Verstappen can take a few races off and still easily win the driver’s championship.
However, he can’t take a few weeks off because he’s chasing a record. The Formula 1 record for consecutive wins is currently held by the now-retired Sebastian Vettel, with nine straight first-place finishes. Today’s Belgian GP win gives Verstappen eight. So he just needs one more to tie Vettel and two more to break the record. At this point, unless something catastrophic happens to his cars in either of those two races, it’s hard to imaging him not breaking the record at this point. The only driver that seems capable of challenging Verstappen is his own teammate, as Perez is the only other driver to win a GP this year, but I can’t imagine the Red Bull team letting Perez snap Verstappen’s potentially record-breaking streak.
F1 takes a little break in August, so we won’t see another race until the Dutch grand prix—Verstappen’s home town race—on August 27. So you Verstappen fans will have to wait a few weeks to see if he can tie the record.
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