Verstappen was born to Dutch former Formula One driver Jos Verstappen and Belgian former kart racer Sophie Kumpen; he grew up in Maaseik, Belgium. He began racing karts at age four and competing in championships at age seven. A dominant 2013 karting season — in which he won two CIK-FIA European Championships and the KZ World Championship — remains an unprecedented achievement in the discipline's history. By winning the gearbox World Championship at Varennes-sur-Allier, he became the youngest-ever driver to do so.
In 2014 Verstappen made his junior formulae debut in the Florida Winter Series before competing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Van Amersfoort Racing. Aged sixteen, he recorded ten victories in the season, became the youngest race winner and polesitter in Formula Three history at the Hockenheimring, and placed third overall. During the first practice session at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen drove for Toro Rosso as preparation for a race seat the following year.
Verstappen joined Toro Rosso alongside Carlos Sainz for 2015, becoming the youngest driver in Formula One history at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at 17 years and 166 days. He scored his first F1 points in Malaysia aged 17 years and 180 days, both records at the time. He finished four of his races in the points in 2015, received multiple FIA awards at the year-end ceremony, and retained his seat for 2016.
On debut for Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix — after replacing Daniil Kvyat mid-season — Verstappen led from midway through the race and resisted Kimi Räikkönen to take victory, becoming at 18 years and 228 days the youngest-ever Formula One Grand Prix winner, displacing Sebastian Vettel. He claimed six top-five finishes in his first eight races for the team.
Verstappen took nine race victories across 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, establishing himself as a consistent podium finisher despite reliability issues and occasional first-lap collisions. His rain-mastery at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix — where he recovered from 16th with fifteen laps remaining to finish third — drew widespread acclaim. He finished third in the championship in both 2019 and 2020, the latter season delivering two wins under Honda power.
Verstappen won his maiden championship in 2021 in the most contested title battle in decades. He and Lewis Hamilton finished the Abu Dhabi finale level on 369.5 points. A controversial safety car restart on the penultimate lap allowed Verstappen, on fresher tyres, to pass Hamilton on the final lap and take the title by a single race win, becoming the first Dutch Formula One World Champion.
Verstappen began 2022 with two retirements in three races and trailed Charles Leclerc by 46 points. He then won twelve of the remaining sixteen races, including a record-equalling grand slam at the Emilia Romagna sprint weekend. His final tally of fifteen victories broke the single-season wins record of thirteen shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. He won the championship with 454 points, beating Hamilton's 2019 record of 413.
The 2023 season produced Verstappen's most dominant campaign. He won ten consecutive races — breaking Vettel's record of nine from 2013 — and finished with nineteen victories from twenty-two starts, scoring 575 points. Red Bull's fifteenth consecutive winning race also set a new team record. He clinched the title at the Qatar sprint.
With Red Bull no longer the fastest car in the field from mid-season, Verstappen delivered what many regarded as his greatest sustained performance. His drive from seventeenth on the grid to victory in a rain-affected São Paulo Grand Prix — setting ten of eleven fastest laps and winning by nineteen seconds — was described by journalists as one of the greatest wet-weather drives in Formula One history. He secured a fourth consecutive title with two races remaining, becoming the first driver since Nelson Piquet in 1983 to win the championship while driving for a third-placed constructor.
Red Bull's performance deficit continued into 2025. Verstappen nonetheless won eight Grands Prix — including the Emilia Romagna race in dominant fashion and a record-setting Italian Grand Prix pole — but finished two points behind champion Lando Norris, who secured the title for McLaren.
Away from Formula One, Verstappen has competed professionally in sim racing since 2015, winning several marquee iRacing events, and runs his own Verstappen Racing sim team. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2022 and was listed among TIME magazine's 100 most influential people globally in 2024. He holds a long-term contract with Red Bull through at least the end of the 2028 season.