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Max Verstappen is now a three-time world champion and the 2024 F1 season will see him trying to string together his fourth title. The driver has been sensational in the last three years as he has not only won so many races but has also not made too many errors. When you look at Verstappen, you don't see a driver who has too many off days.
That is precisely why the Dutchman ended up winning as many as 19 races in 2023. He also broke the record for the most consecutive wins in F1 as he strung together 10 wins. Even right now, he's on a seven-race win streak as the 2024 F1 season looms.
Having said that, Verstappen's career is also filled with quite a few races where he was unable to fulfill the potential of the car. There were races that the Dutch driver should have won but because of a mistake or early career immaturity, he didn't.
In this feature, we will take a look at the five races in his career that Max Verstappen should have won but didn't.
Races Max Verstappen should have won but didn't
#1 2018 F1 Chinese GP
2018 was arguably the turning point in Max Verstappen's career. The Red Bull driver was slowly maturing and getting better since 2016 but by 2018, he had aced most of the things.
There was no noticeable deficit to Daniel Ricciardo anymore when it came to Qualifying or the races as the two were more or less on an even keel, with Verstappen holding a slight edge over his teammate.
However, there was one thing that the Dutchman lagged at this point in his career, and that was maturity. The 2018 F1 Chinese GP was the perfect example of this as the Red Bull driver was in a prime position to make the most of the strategic masterclass from his team.
The late race safety car saw Red Bull take the gamble and pit Verstappen and Ricciardo for fresh tires while the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers were still out on older tires.
Verstappen was ahead of Ricciardo and in prime position to pull off overtakes and win the race. In what could only be described as immaturity, one ambitious move too many saw him have contact with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and ruin his race.
A win that should have been his, went away as Ricciardo got the jump and won the race.
#2 2018 F1 Monaco GP
The 2018 F1 Monaco GP was another instance of Max Verstappen throwing away a race win that should have been his all along. It is this weekend as well that the driver often refers to as the one that proved to be the turning point of his career.
The race in Monaco was always going to be the one where Red Bull would be the team to beat. However, for Verstappen, it almost came as a surprise that he had a very potent challenger in teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
The two drivers continued to trade fastest laps throughout practice sessions but it all went down the drain when Verstappen pushed too hard in the later stages of FP3 and crashed near the swimming pool.
The crash proved to be so damaging that the Dutch driver was out of qualifying and hence out of the fight for pole position. As a result, Ricciardo promptly secured pole position and won the race while Verstappen came home with a handful of points.
#3 2018 F1 Brazilian GP
The race in Brazil in 2018 was a result of a momentary lapse of concentration and lack of maturity from Max Verstappen.
By this time, Verstappen had cleaned up his game by a long way. He was no longer a reckless driver and didn't make many rash decisions. The race in Sau Paulo was one of the rare cases where he had the car to fight for the win.
Verstappen made full use of it and pulled out a massive gap over the chasing pack. It was during this time that he was being chased by Esteban Ocon, a Force India driver on fresh tires trying to unlap himself.
Ideally, recognizing that Ocon was not a threat in any way to him and was just getting held up, Verstappen should have just let him pass on the straight. The Red Bull driver didn't do that and Ocon tried to make a move into the first corner.
With Verstappen closing the door on the Frenchman, the two drivers collided and the Dutchman suffered serious damage to his car and cost him the win.
Verstappen was furious at this point but as Lewis Hamilton pointed out to him in the post-race scrum, the Dutch driver should not have found himself in that position.
#4 2020 F1 Turkish GP
This was arguably one of the races that Max Verstappen would look back on as the one that got away from him.
The Red Bull driver had the pace all weekend but at the same time what was surprising was that Mercedes was woefully off the pace. This was one weekend where Verstappen had the perfect opportunity to pick up a win.
However, in the misty conditions of Turkey, the Red Bull driver's eagerness to pull off a pass saw him make a mistake, damage his tires, and ruin what was a perfect opportunity to win.
In the end, it was Lewis Hamilton who would keep a calm head on his shoulders and win the race.
#5 2021 F1 Azerbaijan GP
For Max Verstappen's 2021 F1 campaign, this was arguably a major setback. He'd put together an impressive race. Made his way through and got the jump on Charles Leclerc early in the race as well. There were only a handful of laps left in the race before his car's tire suffered a puncture, forcing him to retire on the spot.
In the end, it all worked out for Verstappen as his key rival Lewis Hamilton destroyed his own race and hence the Dutchman didn't lose any points. However, he was on course to gain 11 points on Hamilton, which he couldn't at that stage.
