Max Verstappen on his way to outshining Sebastian Vettel’s massive F1 record at the 2023 season finale in Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen has gotten a huge opportunity right in front of him to break former Red Bull Champion Sebastian Vettel's record for the third-most career F1 Grands Prix wins.

Max Verstappen on his way to outshining Sebastian Vettel’s massive F1 record at the 2023 season finale in Abu Dhabi

To say that the Formula 1 2023 season has been a grand Max Verstappen show, would be an understatement. The Dutch lion has gathered a whopping 18 race wins in the 21 races that have happened till now. He has already broken all records that were there in Formula 1 for the highest number of Grand Prix victories in a single season. But now it seems that Verstappen is well on his way towards achieving a new career peak by breaking Sebastian Vettel‘s huge record of winning 54 Grands Prix.

Red Bull legend Sebastian Vettel has dominated the Formula One scene between 2010 to 2013 in all the ways possible. He surpassed heavyweight opponents like Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and even Michael Schumacher to get four brilliant World Championship titles. And in his entire F1 career, he managed to collect 54 Grand Prix victories until he retired last year at the age of 35. And now, Max Verstappen, whom many have touted as the able successor to Vettel at Red Bull, will break the Germans record of he gets one more win in 2023.

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Thus, as Max Verstappen is prepping for the season finale in Abu Dhabi, he has a huge responsibility on his shoulders. Motorsport-total.com claims that getting a win at the Abu Dhabi GP will establish the 26-year-old as the ‘sole third-place finisher in the “all-time winners’ ranking” of Formula 1′. This would, obviously, be more than just another feather in Verstappen’s cap since he would be breaking the record of the most successful driver in the history of his team Red Bull in terms of Championship wins.

Max Verstappen did a 180° turn on his opinions about the Las Vegas GP

The Las Vegas GP was thought to be in muddy waters due to the initial hiccups during Thursday’s Free Practice sessions. FP1 saw Carlos Sainz crash into a manhole cover that was supposed to be welded shut but the negligent organizers had forgotten to do so. Then, the delayed FP2 session was suddenly made inaccessible for the fans who has already bought tickets to the event. This infuriated Max Verstappen as he claimed he would have burned everything down if he were in those deprived fans’ place.

Max Verstappen (via Imago)

Max Verstappen did not stop at that when it came to badmouthing the Las Vegas GP. He criticized the multi-million-dollar-worth show that was put up for the opening ceremony of the race. He said he felt ‘like a clown’ as he stood beside teammate Sergio Perez while waving at the fans during the drivers’ Hunger Games-style introduction. Max also said the Las Vegas GP was 99% entertainment and only 1% racing.

But once he managed to secure victory at the Las Vegas race, Max Verstappen’s quotes seemed to completely change course. He praised the thrill factor at the Grand Prix since it saw five different drivers lead the pack at different points during the race. He also said he would be ‘excited’ to be back to the Sin City for the second edition of the Las Vegas GP next year. But he urged the FIA to change the date and the timings of the race since it poses huge challenges to the racers due to the extreme cold and the nighttime visibility issues.

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