Formula 1 News: Verstappen is the Greatest of All Time says Buemi, and the Stats prove it

In the dim glow of Red Bull’s simulator bays in Milton Keynes, where virtual laps blur into the stuff of nightmares for lesser drivers, current Red Bull F1 simulator driver Sebastien Buemi leans back, a faint smile cracking his usually stoic face. The Swiss simulator ace, who’s logged more digital miles for the team than most real-world racers, doesn’t mince words when it comes to Max Verstappen.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

“I think he’s the goat,” Buemi says, his voice steady as a qualifying lap. “He’s the best. So regardless of the car, in my opinion, he’s the best, and he’s the strongest.” It’s October 2025, and as rain is forecast to lash the Interlagos Circuit during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that could tilt the championship, Buemi’s proclamation hangs like exhaust fumes—thick, unyielding, and impossible to ignore. At just 28 years old, Verstappen isn’t just chasing history; he’s lapping it.

Picture a boy in Hasselt, Belgium, barely out of diapers, gripping a kart steering wheel like it’s the last tether to his dreams. Born to a father who clawed podiums from the ’90s F1 grid and a mother whose karting blood runs as fierce as Dutch determination, Max was engineered for speed.

By age four, he was racing; by seven, dominating European juniors; by 16, shattering records in Formula 3. His F1 debut in 2015? A middle finger to convention. At 17 years and 166 days, he became the youngest starter ever, slotting into Toro Rosso like he’d been forged in the cockpit.

Crashes came—spectacular, eyebrow-raising ones—but so did the sparks: a points finish on debut in Australia, then a podium in Spain that spring, rewriting the record books before he could legally rent a car. He then was moved up to Red Bull’s ‘A’ team and won his first time out. The Formula 1 paddock was in awe.

Fast-forward a decade, and the prodigy has become the predator. As of the Mexican Grand Prix last weekend, Verstappen’s ledger reads like a fever dream for statisticians: four world championships (2021-2024), 68 Grand Prix victories, 47 pole positions, 123 podiums, and 35 fastest laps. That’s not dominance; that’s demolition.

In 2025 alone, despite Red Bull’s RB21 playing catch-up to McLaren’s MCL39, he’s notched five wins, seven poles, and 11 podiums through 20 rounds, clawing a 104-point deficit down to 36 with four races left.

No driver in F1 history has more wins by their 28th birthday than Verstappen’s 68—eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s 38 at the same age. It’s a tally that whispers of invincibility, especially when you stack it against the all-time greats.

Consider Michael Schumacher, the Red Baron’s shadow over modern F1. At 28, in 1997, Schumi had two titles under his belt, 27 wins, 17 poles, and 48 podiums—a haul that felt godlike in the turbo era’s grit.

Lewis Hamilton, the metronome of precision, hit 28 in 2013 with one championship, 18 victories, 29 poles, and 63 podiums, his McLaren and early Mercedes days a symphony of raw talent still finding its crescendo. Ayrton Senna? The poet of pole positions turned 28 in 1988, with one title, 13 wins, 26 poles, and 29 podiums—his McLaren magic just igniting, fueled by that otherworldly qualifying sorcery.

Alain Prost, the Professor, was 28 in 1983: zero crowns, six wins, eight poles, and 17 podiums, his cerebral style still honing against Renault’s unreliability.

And Vettel, the young gun who once held the precocity crown? At 28 in 2015, four titles, 46 wins, 36 poles, 92 podiums—impressive, but a product of Red Bull’s early-2010s rocket ship.

Verstappen? He laps them all. Four titles by 28—matching Vettel’s haul but with nearly one-and-a-half times the wins. His 123 podiums dwarf Hamilton’s 63 and Senna’s 29 by margins that border on the absurd. Poles? 47 to Schumi’s 17, Senna’s 26. And this in an era of hybrid horrors, DRS dances, and tire wars that make every lap a chess match.

How does Verstappen’s record compare to the other greats?

Verstappen doesn’t just win; he redefines winning. Remember 2021’s Abu Dhabi apocalypse, snatching the title on the last lap? Or 2023’s 19-victory blitz, a record that turned seasons into solos?

Even in 2024’s dogfight, he clinched his fourth amid Red Bull’s mid-season wobbles. Now, in 2025, with the team “unlocking quite a bit of performance” via a clever floor upgrade at Monza, the Dutchman has pillaged three of the last five races, turning a yawning gap into a knife-edge.

Buemi, who’s seen Verstappen’s genius from the sim’s sterile glow, marvels at the intangibles. “I think the team kept pushing for a very long [time] and had a little bit of a breakthrough in understanding a few things,” he told RacingNews365 in Valencia, crediting Red Bull’s dogged development—a “clever way” that hasn’t derailed 2026 prep.

But it’s Max who elevates the machine. In Mexico, where the RB21 wasn’t “clearly as good as it was in Austin, Baku and Monza,” Verstappen almost conjured second place from fifth on the grid, a one-stop masterclass in a car that begged for mercy.

“Mexico is really him,” Buemi insists. “He made the difference even. So I don’t think he had the car really to do much better.” It’s that edge—the wet-weather wizardry at Interlagos in 2016 and 2024, the street-circuit savagery in Baku, the unflinching fury against Norris and Piastri—that sets him apart.

As Buemi puts it, “developing the 2025 Red Bull car maybe a bit longer than some of the others, I think was good… But it’s now making sure we maximize, every time, the maximum, the full potential of the car.”

Yet for all his machinery, Verstappen’s GOAT case isn’t bolted to stats alone; it’s etched in the souls he’s outdriven.

Senna’s qualifying poetry? Max pens sonnets in race trim.

Schumi’s Ferrari renaissance? Verstappen helped rebuilt Red Bull from midfield minnows to dynasty architects.

Hamilton’s longevity? Give Max time—he’s got a decade on the seven-time champ’s pace.

And in the cockpit, where fear devours the timid, Verstappen is fearless. Crashes in his Toro Rosso teens? Fuel for his fire. Title-deciding collisions with Hamilton? Badges of bravery.

“There is no discussion; he’s the best,” Buemi declares, his simulator-honed eyes seeing what fans feel in their guts. But the title hunt? It’s a gauntlet. With four races and six sprints left, Verstappen must be flawless, perhaps banking on “bad luck for the others”—Norris and Piastri’s McLaren harmony cracking under Interlagos’ storm.

São Paulo awaits, a circuit that knows Verstappen’s name like an old scar. In 2024, he stormed from 17th to first in a deluge that drowned the field. This weekend, with forecasts calling for more rain, it could be the pivot—the moment his fifth straight title becomes more of a possibility, which would equalize Schumacher’s record, all before 29. If he pulls it off, the whispers become roars: not just the greatest of his generation, but of all time. Buemi’s already converted. “I would really love him to get the title… Knowing that, there is no discussion, he’s the best.”

In a sport built on what-ifs and wreckage, Max Verstappen isn’t chasing immortality. At 28, with 68 wins and legends in his rearview, he’s already lapped it. The rain may fall, but the king? He was born to rule the wet.