Born the son of Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen, he was introduced to racing at birth, and after his first karting experience at the age of 7, he showed his talent and became the Belgian national category champion. From there, he won race after race, accumulating titles in the European and World Championships before moving up to single-seaters in 2014 at the age of 16. In his debut year, he finished 3rd overall in the FIA F3 Championship and 7th in the F3 Macau GP.

In 2015, he moved to Scuderia Toro Rosso for his first full season in F1, becoming the youngest driver in history to start a race at the age of 17 years and 165 days. He finished the season in 12th place overall with two 4th places and 10 finishes as a rookie, and moved to Red Bull Racing for the 5th round in 2016, the Spanish Grand Prix. He won his first race with Red Bull Racing, becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race at the age of 18 years and 227 days.

In 2020, he continued with Red Bull Racing, winning two races and finishing on the podium in most of the races he completed. He finished 3rd in the championship, tying his best finish ever.

In 2021, he was in a fierce battle with Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) for the drivers' title. In the final race of the season, with the same points, he won the final lap in a come-from-behind victory to take his first Drivers' title. With his first win at the Monaco Grand Prix, he marked 10 victories for the year.

In the 2022 season, wearing the number "1," he enjoyed a truly dominant year with a record 15 wins on the way to a second World Championship title, sealed, fittingly, at the Japanese Grand Prix.

In 2023, Max rewrote the record books with a truly dominant season with 19 wins to take a third consecutive World Championship title. Alongside Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT took 21 wins from 22 to set a new win record rate of 95.5%, surpassing that previously set by Honda in 1988 at 93.8%.