Verstappen gained 19 of the 22 races on the F1 calendar in 2023, and secured final 12 months’s drivers’ championship in early October after ending second within the Qatar dash race.
His achievements over the previous three seasons in F1 have thus ensured his place on this 12 months’s Time 100 listing, which incorporates world leaders, writers, entertainers and different international icons throughout a variety of industries.
Verstappen joins a smorgasbord of athletes who’ve made this 12 months’s listing, together with Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, rugby star Siya Kolisi – who captained South Africa to its 2023 Rugby World Cup win – and Jenni Hermoso, who gained the 2023 Ladies’s Soccer World Cup with Spain.
The Dutchman’s entry was penned by Time’s senior sports activities correspondent Sean Gregory, who writes that “Verstappen is so assured behind the wheel that in a minimum of one race he’s been capable of keep watch over the screens across the observe in an effort to watch the battle occurring behind him.”
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing RB20
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The Time 100 formally started in 1999, and a number of members who’ve graced this 12 months’s listing will likely be invited to a summit on 24 April and a gala on 15 Might – though it’s unknown if Verstappen will attend both occasion given his schedule this season.
Additional achievements that Verstappen has accrued in his time in F1 embody 57 race victories and 36 pole positions, alongside together with his seemingly unbeatable report of turning into F1’s youngest driver on the age of 17, when he made his race debut in 2015 for Toro Rosso.
On becoming a member of Purple Bull in 2016, Verstappen gained his first race for the Milton Keynes outfit on the Spanish Grand Prix, after which sensationally beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to the title in a contentious 2021 championship showdown at Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen will not be the one F1 driver to look on the Time 100 listing: Hamilton was included within the American journal’s century of influential people in 2020, whereas seven-time champion Michael Schumacher was a part of the 2005 listing.