F1 Austrian Grand Prix: Who has the most wins?

The F1 Austrian GP has been around for a long time. The first Austrian GP was held in Zeltweg in 1964. It took F1 6 years to return to the country in 1970 to the legendary Österreichring. Ever since the Austrian GP has gone through changes, the biggest of them all being the move the Spielberg in 1997 after the Österreichring became a bit too much for the F1 cars in the late 1980s.

As many as 34 F1 Austrian GPs have been held so far and even though the venues have changed, the event has always been a handful. One question that keeps propping up when we talk about this race, however, is the driver whose name we could associate with this track.

When we talk about Spa in Belgium, we talk about Kimi Raikkonen. When we talk about Suzuka in Japan, we talk about the great Ayrton Senna, and when we talk about Silverstone, we talk about the British legend Lewis Hamilton. In the case of the Red Bull Ring (as it is now called), which driver do we associate the track with?

The answer to that question is Max Verstappen! The Dutch driver has been a force of nature on this track and has already won 3 Austrian GPs and 1 Styrian GP on this track. Although Alain Prost has also won the Austrian GP 3 times in his career, Verstappen takes the nod because he has won 4 times on this track.

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Which F1 Austrian GPs did Max Verstappen win?

Even though Red Bull finally reached the top of the pecking order last year, the team was able to stay competitive at the Red Bull Ring even before that. Max Verstappen first won the Austrian GP in 2018 and since then he has been able to pick his way to a win in 2019 and 2021 as well.

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Which one of his victories was the best?

Although the Red Bull driver has racked up three wins on the track, it's not that tough to pick out the best Austrian GP triumph of his career: 2019. The way Max Verstappen fumbled the start, dropped down the standings on the first lap of the race only to make his way through the field, overtake Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Charles Leclerc to win the race was sensational.

What made it even more impressive was Verstappen lapping his teammate Pierre Gasly in the process, highlighting the kind of performance he was able to extract from the car. It was the first win for the Red Bull-Honda partnership, one that culminated with a title win in the 2021 Formula 1 season.

While the Dutchman was able to drive a measured race in 2018 and dominate from the front in 2021, it was his drive in 2019 that was just a class apart in every way possible.

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There were the ones that he missed as well!

When we talk about the F1 Austrian GP, it's not always been smooth sailing for the Red Bull driver. While he's had some fond memories of this track, the track had not been a happy hunting ground for the team before the 2018 win. The track, with its long straights, demands a certain level of competitiveness in the straight line, and Red Bull in its association with Renault did not have much of that in the turbo-hybrid era.

Arguably the worst instance of them all was in 2017. Max Verstappen had qualified in P5 in his Red Bull and the race pace had looked promising for the team. As it turned out, however, the Red Bull driver was the innocent victim in the crash caused by Daniil Kvyat at the start of the race. The Toro Rosso driver would hit Fernando Alonso, who would, in turn, hit Verstappen. The damage caused to his car would result in the Dutchman retiring on the spot.

While Verstappen would love to put on a show as he did in 2019, a win similar to his dominance last year would be something he would be looking forward to this weekend.