Given the self-assured poise with which Max Verstappen secured his third Formula One world championship this season, the Dutchman has almost made this complex and intensely demanding sport look effortless. Verstappen, it appears, has sashayed through 2023 delivering win, after win, after win, inexorable, untouchable. Yet despite the glacial calm, the elegant composure, the great drivers are still paddling furiously beneath the surface.
Now the title is secure after the sprint race on Saturday in Qatar, considerations of Verstappen’s achievement are under way. Naysayers point at his utterly dominant Red Bull car and of the challenge by his teammate Sergio Pérez going gently into the night. Valid observations but both are somewhat uncharitable given quite how good Verstappen has been this year.
Few are better placed to assess him than the double world champion Mika Häkkinen, a driver who enjoyed a dominant car for his first title in 1998, one that appropriately was designed by the genius behind Red Bull’s current rocket ship, Adrian Newey. Häkkinen remains an ambassador for McLaren, with whom he won both titles, and is still a keen observer and attendee at F1. The Finn barely hesitates when asked whether such success really does come easily.
“Max has a fantastic car but it doesn’t just come like that,” he says empathically. “Max has this kind of car, which is absolutely flat-out like a bullet but you still need to deliver, you still need to use this car. You still have to deliver, doesn’t matter if the car is good or bad, you have to give the maximum.”
Häkkinen raced in F1 between 1991 and 2001 and was a huge talent, taking two titles in 1998 and 1999. The first was in the first car Newey designed for McLaren and the one he is most proud of, the MP4/13. At the opening round that season in Australia in the hands of Häkkinen and David Coulthard it lapped the entire field. Häkkinen went on to take eight wins from 16 races. At times he too made it look easy but he insists it was anything but and that the same applies to Verstappen.
“The records show how Max has been driving this year and with this kind of domination in performance, whether practice, qualification or the race. The driving has been incredibly controlled,” he says. “Not controlled just physically driving but also controlled mentally. Being able to stay extremely focused all the way, that is very impressive. F1 puts you under very high pressure, winning or not it puts pressure on you.
“That is very difficult for a driver to balance and control, so to return those kind of results requires great mental strength.”
The Finn, now 55, is as insightful as ever on the sport and also eager to emphasise that success such as Verstappen is enjoying does not happen in a vacuum, his own experience a lesson in how much has to come together across a team to deliver what appears to be seamless performance.
“When you do get an ultimate F1 car what that means is it is absolutely tailor made for you. I experienced this with McLaren with all the departments of the team coming together. I know the work that we did and I know how we were able to get this incredible package together. Today it’s even more challenging, even harder. You have more people, more data to analyse, the communication level with different departments has to be of an even higher level, more organised. Red Bull and Max have found that and they are doing a great job.”
The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, described Verstappen as a “tough cookie”, a driver with exacting demands who expects the rest of the team to meet his standards. It is a trait found in many of the greats and positively welcomed at Red Bull, where no one has anything but praise for Verstappen’s commitment and strident desire to win. Häkkinen recognises in him the competitive drive that is a key part of the champion’s armoury.
He recalls how even when McLaren were the class of the field in 1998 there was no room for complacency. It is a trait Häkkinen believes he shares with Verstappen: the hardworking relentless pursuit of improvement that ultimately contributed to what has been a remarkable season.
“You need to constantly focus on how you can make the car better even if it is already half a second quicker than any other,” he says. “In a way that’s an awful feeling because you are looking for problems. You never come into the pits and say: ‘My car is fantastic.’ That requires a great focus, the constant demand: ‘What do I need to go quicker?’ and Max has demonstrated that focus.”
