Max Verstappen may find in the rain an opportunity to seek his first victory in the 2026 Formula 1 season. With an 85% chance of rain during the three days of activity in Zandvoort, the Red Bull Racing driver will face a condition he has known since very early on.
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After eleven rounds, Verstappen has achieved some podiums, but victory has not yet happened this year. The next commitment will be the Dutch GP, his home race, on a weekend with a Sprint format, and the forecast of a wet track may favor a driver who built much of his experience precisely in these conditions.
The Dutchman recalled that he started training in the rain with his father, Jos Verstappen, at four and a half years old: “We drove a lot in the rain anyway. He showed me the lines,” said Max, who also said he competed in Karting on wet tracks without specific rain tires.
The exercises with Jos, a former F1 driver, even involved quite risky situations. Verstappen revealed that his father stayed at a certain point on the track to guide him but had to get out of the way on one occasion because Max entered the corner too fast: “But that’s how you learn. You need to go off the track. You need to understand where the grip is or where it isn’t,” his father said at the time.
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For Verstappen, the learning was built over several years and evolved especially quickly during childhood: “You constantly learn something new, and especially at that age you take bigger steps,” he continued. The four-time world champion highlighted that from five to twelve years old, and maybe even up to fourteen, it is possible to evolve significantly in the rain and learn to manage different levels of grip.
The history helps explain why Verstappen considers the wet track a particularly favorable condition. In 2024, at the São Paulo GP in Brazil, he starred in one of his greatest performances in Formula 1 by winning after starting 17th, reinforcing his reputation in races contested under rain.
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