Max Verstappen says it feels “incredible” to equal Ayrton Senna’s Formula 1 win tally following his victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen commanded the race around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday to bag his 41st career win.
His run of success in recent years has propelled him up the order of the most successful drivers in the sport’s history, and Verstappen is now tied for fifth place on the all-time win list.
While the Dutchman has continuously acknowledged that today’s records are skewed due to there being more races on the calendar, he asserts he’s “proud” to have matched three-time World Champion Senna.
“I mean, I hate to compare different generations,” Verstappen said after the race. “From my side, the only thing I can say is that when I was a little kid driving in go-karting, I was dreaming about being a Formula 1 driver and I would have never imagined to win 41 Grands Prix.
“So of course, to tie with Ayrton is something incredible. And of course, I’m proud of that, but of course, I hope it’s not stopping here. You know, I hope that we can keep on winning more races.”
It was also a seismic day for the Red Bull team, as it claimed its 100th race victory in F1.
Red Bull is just the fourth squad in the history of the sport to achieve such a feat after Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes.
“Yeah, I’ve won 41 of them,” Verstappen joked when he was told about Red Bull’s record. “But, yeah, we’ll talk about maybe a new contract because of that!
“No, honestly, it’s a great achievement for the team. We knew that this was the first opportunity, of course, to do so.
“And I’m happy that’s done. We’ve won 100. But again, I hope we win more than 100. So the new target is 200.”
