The latest to join the unending list of admirers of Max Verstappen is none other than MotoGP sensation Marc Marquez. The duo, owing to their allegiances to Red Bull, meet regularly and enjoy each other’s company. Marquez recently made his admiration known for the reigning F1 champion while also revealing the quality they both share.
“I really like Max Verstappen. Especially because he is a true ‘killer.'”
RacingNews365 quoted him as saying, What does that mean? That you don’t care about anything except the only sacred goal: winning.” He added, “To win, to be successful, or to be a hero, you also have to be a ‘killer.’ The 30-year-old admitted this was the mentality that is common to them.
Verstappen may have stamped his authority on F1 with his recent run of success. But Marquez is no stranger to it. In a rare feat, the Spaniard won his first MotoGP championship in his rookie year back in 2013. To top it off, he has grabbed the title 5 more times. Marquez had an underwhelming 2023 owing to a humerus fracture.
Going by the run Verstappen is on, it is highly unlikely it will come to a halt anytime soon. The Dutchman just finished what was one of the most dominant seasons the sport has ever witnessed. If the margins over the rivals are any indication, the coming season is more than likely to see him add to his championship tally.
The “Killer” combination that Max Verstappen and Red Bull is
2023 was a season that saw Verstappen and Red Bull break numerous records and extend on a few more. To give an idea of what it all looked like, the Milton Keynes-based team broke McLaren’s 1988 record for the highest win rate in a season. While McLaren held a record of 94% wins, Red Bull topped it with a 95% win rate.
Teams like Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes gave hints of closing the gap to the reigning champions, but a heist on the 2024 title is highly unlikely. That is because Red Bull had put their development plans on the back burner pretty early in the season. All this while, the rivals kept on striving to get better while the Austrian team invested most of its time and resources in the next year’s campaign.
All this while, Verstappen kept churning out consistent performances to prolong the edge his team enjoyed on rivals. To put things into perspective, the Dutchman broke Sebastian Vettel’s decade-old record of 9 consecutive wins to register ten race wins. That was the level of consistency on his part that made the RB19 and his abilities behind the wheel a lethal combination.
While other teams will continue to give it their all to give Red Bull a run for their money, any real potential threat is unlikely to arrive before 2026. That is because F1 will introduce a new set of regulations in 2026. Until then, Red Bull is expected to continue its dominant run thanks to Adrian Newey’s expertise on ground-effect regulations.
