How many car crashes has Max Verstappen had?
Max Verstappen walking away from his crashed car at Baku
Recently crowned world champion, Max Verstappen, has been in high spirits since his win at the Yas Marina Circuit at the end of the 2021 F1 season. But today, unlike usual counting podiums and wins, we’ll look at the number of crashes the Red Bull Racing driver has had.
Max Verstappen isn’t just the current defending world champion but also achieved the feat of being the youngest ever driver to race in an F1 race at the mere age of 17 years. He achieved this feat in 2014.
Verstappen has been quite aggressive in his approach towards wins and has had several crashes. He has always been very vocal about his frustration with not finishing a race because of his crashes.
Max Verstappen and the number of crashes he has faced
Max Verstappen has been subjected to quite several crashes. His time as an F1 driver from his initial run with Scuderia Toro Rosso till 2016 was rather unfortunate. During those three years, Verstappen suffered many crashes, more than any driver in F1 history.
A crash on the grid brings innumerable expenses, ranging from engine-related expenses to power unit costs. Verstappen in particular has proved to be quite an expensive affair for the Austria-based racing team.
The Dutch driver has suffered from 29 crashes on the grid. What is to note is that he’s suffered more number of crashes in a short career than his major rival, Lewis Hamilton, who has suffered from 26 crashes in his rather more illustrious career. The current world champion also has the highest failure rate on the grid when it comes to crashes.
Find out the most disastrous crashes faced by Max Verstappen
Among the numerous crashes Verstappen has had, we have a list of crashes that were comparatively more disastrous than the others based on several factors like damage incurred, costs incurred, etc.
The street circuit of Circuit de Monaco hasn’t been particularly favorable for the Dutch driver who had to deal with crashes in one of the most popular races on the calendar four times. On the 34th lap of the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, a virtual safety car was summoned to assist in the race until the 37th lap when Verstappen crashed his car into the pool road-course barricade after his tires locked up. The 24-year-old driver’s misfortune at Monaco doesn’t seem to suffice with him suffering from crashes even during practice in that circuit.
One particular crash of Verstappen that was quite digitalized was his crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2018 with fellow teammate Daniel Ricciardo. That crash didn’t just come at the expense of Red Bull losing out on a podium, but an eventual win when it mattered. Both drivers were penalized by the FIA following the incident.
Rishika Saha
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