Max Verstappen extends staggering F1 streak into second decade

It is just over 10 years since Max Verstappen last took the chequered flag at a grand prix and failed to score points, with the four-time F1 drivers' champion's extraordinary run of consistency now stretching into a second decade.

The Dutchman's last finish outside the top 10 came at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix on 28 August 2016, when first-lap damage from a collision with the two Ferraris left his Red Bull wounded and he limped home to P11 at Spa-Francorchamps. Every single classified finish since has been inside the points.

The numbers across that period are scarcely believable. In 213 grands prix entered from the 2016 Italian Grand Prix onwards through this year's Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen has been classified as a finisher 183 times, and on every occasion he has finished P10 or higher.

Of those 183 finishes, 70 have been victories, 128 podiums, and not one has fallen outside the points-paying positions.

The 30 races in which Verstappen failed to see the flag were all retirements, with the 28-year-old never once recording a DNS in his career. When Verstappen finishes a grand prix, he scores. It is as simple as that.

His closest brushes with a pointless classified finish came at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix, where he scraped home P10, one lap adrift, to collect a single championship point.

More recently, eighth at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix marked his lowest finish this season among the races he has completed.

That such finishes remain the low points of Verstappen's decade tells its own story. Even across the difficult 2017 campaign, which brought seven retirements, and a challenging 2026 season that has yielded four DNFs in 12 rounds, the Dutchman has never failed to extract points from a race he has finished.