Max Verstappen gives revealing insight into dominant mentality after 100th F1 podium
Max Verstappen won the 19th race in 20 in Saudi Arabia.
Max Verstappen scored his 100th podium in just 188 Formula 1 starts in Saudi Arabia, but gave an insight into his mentality by joking that it was a stat that showed it was “88 missed podiums” on his part.
In the times he has crossed the finish line, the three-time World Champion has only finished outside the top three on six occasions since the start of the 2020 season, a quite remarkable statistic that has seen Verstappen rocket up the all-time standings in pretty much every form – not that stats have ever been his main motivation.
Max Verstappen jokes about ’88 missed podiums’ after reaching new landmark
Verstappen’s first Formula 1 podium came with his first victory, which was also his first race as a Red Bull driver back at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, and since then he has gone from strength to strength on his way to three World Championships to date.
When presented with the statistic that his win in Jeddah was his 100th podium in only 188 starts, Verstappen responded with a smile: “It’s 88 missed podiums!”
After a brief laugh, he then added: “No, of course, very happy with that. But I’m not really a guy, you know, looking at the stats, so I’m just happy to hit 100.
“But I want to, of course, continue and just focus race-by-race on achieving the best possible result all the time.”
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Verstappen has a chance to match his own record set of 10 wins in a row with victory in Australia next weekend, having already notched up the remarkable statistic of winning 19 of the last 20 races in Formula 1.
His win at Albert Park last year was his first in Melbourne, but despite his and the Red Bull RB20’s flying start to the season, he is refusing to get carried away with the team’s prospects heading into the Australian Grand Prix.
“Yeah, it’s a very different track again, especially also now with the new layout, the new tarmac,” he said.
“So, yeah, next week we’ll go in the simulator again, try to set it up as well as we can before we get there, and then we’ll just see throughout the weekend where we are.
“I mean, it’s impossible to know how competitive we are going to be.”
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