Max Verstappen makes Formula 1 history with 10th consecutive win at Monza as Toto Wolff calls win “irrelevant”

Max Verstappen has secured a new Formula 1 record after taking his 10th consecutive win during Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Despite starting from second place, Verstappen overtook Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on lap 14 at Monza’s Temple of Speed to take home another victory.

The Dutch driver, 25, has now beat the record he shared with retired World Champion Sebastian Vettel, to become the first driver in Formula One to reach double figures in consecutive victories. According to De Telegraff the four-time World Champion has since text the Dutch driver to congratulate him on breaking his record.

Vettel sent the driver his heartfelt congratulations where he told the driver to “continue to enjoy his success“. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told his winning driver: “This is history. Unbelievable” over the drivers radio following the race.

The two-time World Champion broke the fan speculated Monza curse to take home yet another victory for the Red Bull team. Verstappen said: “I never would have believed that it was possible. But we had to work for it today and that definitely made it a lot more fun. We had good pace but they had a lot of top speed.

“It was so hard to get close. He (Sainz) made a mistake, locked up and I had better traction out of Turn 2 and from there we could do our own race. I tried to stay patient.  I could see he was struggling on his rear tyres so I had to pick my moment.”

The win was Verstappen’s 12th victory from the 14 races of the F1 2023 season, where he now leads the Driver’s Championship by 145 points. So far Red Bull have claimed all victories this season and with just eight races to go, the team look set to dominate for the rest of the year.

Verstappen has been unbeaten since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on April 30 and is now on target to take his third consecutive World Championship. The Dutch driver could secure the title as early as the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of September with six races still remaining for the season.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has since called the win “completely irrelevant” and “for Wikipedia” in a post race interview. Wolff, whose drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth, found it difficult to praise Verstappen on yet another record win this season.

Wolff said: “For me, these kinds of records are completely irrelevant. They were irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes.I don’t know how many races we won in a row. I didn’t even know that there was a count of how many wins in a row, so if you are asking me to comment on the achievement it is difficult, because it never played a role in my own life until I heard about it yesterday.

“The result itself shows a great driver in a great car, who are competing on an extremely high level.” Before telling Sky Sports:” It is not something that would be important for me.  numbers are for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.”