San Francisco Frontiers - Verstappen - the natural born champion

Over the years he has wedded that innate talent to a growing maturity -- a combination that on Saturday earned him a third consecutive world title in the sprint race ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.

His journey from "Mad Max" -- a sobriquet he earned in his early years -- to "Super Max" has been accomplished at the wheel of a Red Bull car hailed by the man of the moment as a "rocket ship".

After that fiercely contentious first world crown secured on the last lap of the 2021 season on a wild night in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen wrapped up his second crown in Japan with four races to spare last year.

The writing was on the wall as early as the season opener in Bahrain in March that it was going to take an act of the non-Red Bull-supporting Formula One gods to prevent him claiming a third title.

"They have this championship sewn up," muttered Mercedes' George Russell then, prophetically.

- Different league -

The 26-year-old Belgian-born Dutchman assembled a record run of 10 races undefeated between Miami in May to Monza in September as he bulldozed through the year operating in a different league to his hapless grid rivals.

He has now joined an elite club numbering only four members -- Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton -- to win three championships in a row.

For Red Bull team principal Christian Horner his star driver's supremacy has been a wonder to behold.

"The raw speed and ability has been there from day one, and that hunger and passion that he drives with," Horner said.

"Now he couples that with experience and the way he reads the race, the way he manages tyres, the way he reads the situation.

"He pushes the team, we push him and we both go to new levels."

The son of Jos, a former journeyman Formula One driver, and Belgian world-class kart racer Sophie, Max sped to multiple titles as a boy and almost won the F3 title at his first attempt aged 15.

Verstappen senior remembered: "For me it was never about age.

"It was so natural what he was doing. It was impressive. Max is an exciting driver. He's much better than me."

Max graduated to the F1 fast lane in 2015 with Red Bull's junior team, then known as Toro Rosso.

Aged just 17 years and 166 days, he was the youngest ever F1 driver in the sport at a time when he still had not passed his regular driving test.

That first season saw him take his first points and get involved in his first scrap. A shunt on Romain Grosjean in Monaco saw Verstappen labelled "dangerous" by Williams driver Felipe Massa but he went on to land the FIA's Rookie of the Year title.

- Verstappen era -

In May 2016, he was promoted to the Red Bull team, replacing Daniil Kvyat, and the results were impressive and immediate. In his first race in Spain, he qualified fourth and held off Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to become the youngest ever winner, aged 18, in F1.

Verstappen notched six top-five finishes, including four podiums, in his first eight races.

Over the next few seasons Verstappen proved he had the qualities and an ability to soak up pressure to suggest that he was a champion-in-waiting, ready when the occasion presented itself to topple Lewis Hamilton from F1's summit.

"He seems to deal with the pressure better than other people," two-time world champion Fernando Alonso noted.

"Everyone is different, but it seems that for him it is not a big deal."

Red Bull's astute grasp of the new technical ground-effect landscape that was ushered in last season has inevitably played a major role in Verstappen's success.

And his loyalty in sticking with the Austrian team rather than being tempted away to Ferrari has been repaid handsomely.

"I trusted the process," said Verstappen, whose model girlfriend Kelly Piquet is the daughter of Nelson Piquet, another three-time champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987.

"That's why I never left. Sometimes, you could have said: 'Ah, it's time to leave and go somewhere else and chase immediate success.' But I believed in the team, the people, and it has paid off."

Hamilton was asked after Verstappen's second title success about whether F1 was entering a "Verstappen era".

"It is too early to say," said the seven-time champion, who may well have since revised his opinion after Verstappen's gloriously relentless rampage through this season.

E.Cruz--SFF