The 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix is a massive milestone for Max Verstappen and Red Bull. While the Austrian stable has become the first team in F1’s history to have 12 wins in a row, Verstappen equalled Nico Rosberg’s record of seven straight victories. But interestingly, the Red Bull driver also made a U-turn following the race win as he proved Helmut Marko right.
For ages, it was known that the Red Bull star did not care about records. Even the Dutchman was clear about it on more than one occasion. For instance, after he equalled, the record of Ayrton Senna’s all-time GP wins recently.
Seven wins in succession 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/dqkj8yCBR7
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 23, 2023
There, Verstappen said that he was racing because he loved it and would not look to stop there. Before this, the 25-year-old also shared during the 2021 F1 season that he doesn’t care about “such records” [On being the youngest F1 world champion ever.]
But it seems like Verstappen has lied about it all along. A few weeks back, Helmut Marko, the taskmaster of Red Bull Racing, revealed that even though the two-time world champion says he does not care about records. But deep inside, he does because he has every record installed in his memory. And Verstappen only proved him right after his Hungaroring win.
Verstappen made the u-turn and proven Marko right
After Verstappen won the Hungaroring race, he was approached by Nico Rosberg for the immediate post-race interview. There while talking about Red Bull’s back-to-back 12 victories and Verstappen’s seven, the Dutchman unintentionally revealed himself.
The Red Bull driver asked Rosberg if he had seven straight victories, which he equalled on Sunday. And it was all for everyone to remember Marko’s statement that the 25-year-old remembers all records.
A magnificent seventh victory in a row for @Max33Verstappen
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🇭🇺🏆#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/IilXCW6Os7— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2023
Admittedly, the Dutchman matched Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, and Sebastian Vettel’s seven back-to-back wins. But if he has to be the best here, the former Toro Rosso man will need to have three more wins to break the nine record wins Vettel set in 2013.
Verstappen and Red Bull’s massive achievements in 2023
Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been phenomenal in the last two seasons, including 2023. Of the last 22 races, the Milton-Keynes-based team won 21.
Apart from this, they picked up all 11 wins in 11 rounds this time around, with Verstappen picking up nine and Sergio Perez having two. And most importantly, they broke McLaren’s long-standing record of 11 straight wins, which was set by the great Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost back in 1988.
The winning streak started in Abu Dhabi last season and is still going strong today. Even though Lando Norris’ McLaren and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes were a bit of a threat ahead of Sunday, the mighty RB-19 and the agile Dutch driver were no longer stopping.