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Max Verstappen is just 26, and if everything works according to plan, he will be a four-time world champion by the end of the season. The driver burst onto the scene in 2015 when he was just a teenager.
After what appeared to be a bidding war between Mercedes and Red Bull, Max Verstappen went with the Austrian squad and has continued to be a part of that team since then.
Following a swift promotion to Red Bull in 2016, Max Verstappen has been one of the top drivers in the sport for a long time. He won his first title in the last race of the season in 2021 and has since won two more titles.
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So, let's analyse why a driver like Verstappen is someone every F1 supporter should be a fan of. The world of social media is polarised even on its best days. Even in such an ecosystem, everyone who watches the sport should be a fan of a driver like Verstappen. Here's why.
Why everyone should be a Max Verstappen fan
#1 An F1 race winner as a teenager
It's not every day that a prodigious talent just steps into F1 and puts everyone on notice. Well, that was exactly what Max Verstappen did in 2015 when he made his debut.
Everyone knew after that first season that the kid was something special. There was, however, this factor of what the then 17-year-old could do if he was put in a competitive car.
Lo and behold, Red Bull didn't wait for long to test that, as Max Verstappen got an immediate promotion, and the rest is history. A young teenager fended off his race-winning teammate and two former world champions en route his first F1 win in his very first race for the team at the 2016 Spanish GP.
Even now, when one looks back at it, the fact that Max Verstappen did all of this as a teenager is astounding.
#2 That first title campaign
Not many have looked back and understood the mountain of a challenge Max Verstappen had to overcome in 2021 to even be in a position to fight Lewis Hamilton for the title in the very last race of the season.
The emotional message from Gianpiero Lambiase after Verstappen had won the title had a lot of merit. Until that last lap of the last race of the season, Max Verstappen had virtually no luck that season.
The collision with Lewis Hamilton at Solve could have ended up in a DNF for both drivers. But on the contrary, the subsequent red flag helped the Mercedes driver to still be a part of the race and win.
The Red Flag in Imola allowed Hamilton to come back and finish second in the race after being a lap down. The late-race puncture in Baku was a heartbreak. There were far too many other moments that just didn't go Verstappen's way.
Nevertheless, every race weekend, Verstappen would turn up and try to extract the best from his car and not wilt under pressure. He was just in his early 20s and was going up against the might of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.
Yet, he kept his cool and produced magic many times that season, which just proved how special a talent Verstappen is.
#3 A simple family man
When you think of an F1 driver, you think about someone who's an adventure freak. You think of someone who's a bit of a loose cannon. You think about someone who lives life in the fast lane.
Even on the current F1 grid, there are plenty of drivers who belong to this category, but Verstappen is not one of them. He's one of the very few grounded individuals who are very much involved with their families.
Verstappen is still very close to his father. He's very close with his partner, Kelly Piquet, and her daughter. If there's an F1 racer stereotype that exists, Verstappen is not the one who fits in that mold.
In Max Verstappen, we don't have a perfect driver. The reality is that there's no such thing as a perfect driver. But what we have is a talent who might not stick around for a long time, but what he has done and achieved in the car is something unprecedented.
He was good enough to be an F1 racer as a teenager. He has done things his way and turned heads in a manner only elite talents are able to. If you appreciate talent and brilliance, you ought to be a Max Verstappen fan.
