How much does yet another Verstappen documentary really offer?

The latest Max Verstappen documentary from Viaplay, marking 10 years of the four-time world champion in Formula 1, is now available in the UK. 

Verstappen's highs and lows have played out in full view since his very first grand prix weekend appearance in late 2014. 

On Friday, ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, 10 Years of Max Verstappen gets its UK streaming premiere (fans in the UK can find Viaplay as an Amazon Prime Video Channels add-on).

But in an increasingly saturated market for F1 content - and from a company that is into double digits for Verstappen 'documentaries' - how much value is there in recapping such a well-known career, and how well has it been done?

Not just a highlights reel

The documentary begins, unsurprisingly, with a highlights reel from Verstappen's career. Some obvious moments are featured initially: the first win at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, and the slide he caught in that year's horribly wet Brazilian GP (which Verstappen was the star of). 

But it quickly moves onto some nice specifics to remember too, like the round-the-outside move on Felipe Nasr at Blanchimont as an F1 rookie, barging his way past Charles Leclerc to earn his first win with Honda at the 2019 Austrian GP.

Then, crucially, moments that show Verstappen's controversial side. We see the shove on Esteban Ocon after the 2018 Brazilian GP, his heavy Toro Rosso crash in Monaco in 2015 when caught out behind Romain Grosjean, and, interestingly, images and team radio of him defying a team order in Singapore that same year (amusingly accompanied by a shot of his dad Jos applauding).

This opening montage is quickly back to the big ticket items: spinning-and-winning in Hungary in 2022, and of course the explosive, emotional 2021 title decider. 

But it sets the tone nicely that this isn't just going to be a celebration of Verstappen's high moments, it will touch on the flashpoints that accompanied them. Especially with an introduction that references: "The Dutchman has left millions around the world stunned over the past decade, but also screaming with anger and sometimes crying with sadness."

This is well revisited with a good one-two combination of the 2016 Belgian and Mexican GPs when Verstappen famously incurred the wrath of both Ferrari drivers for two incidents, with Kimi Raikkonen at Spa and then Sebastian Vettel in Mexico.

And there are other big-picture elements as well, that get used as narrative devices to breeze through some less significant seasons - like the Renault engine problems being the talking point for 2017.

The only downside is instead of time making Verstappen feel comfortable giving his brutally honest view on Renault, his newly shot interviews convey a much more laissez-faire attitude than at the time. So it loses a little impact.

For 2018, there's briefly focus on Verstappen's own errors early on, with a montage of mistakes and a brilliant use of the full, awkward silence that punctuates Verstappen's famous answer in the Canadian GP press conference that ended with him suggesting he would "headbutt someone" if he kept being asked about his accidents.

Verstappen's temperament is picked up as a means of weaving between various topics: like the Ocon clash in Brazil in 2018, Red Bull mistakes that have angered him (Singapore 2022 and Hungary 2024), and George Russell's move at the start of the Azerbaijan sprint race in 2024.

How the big moments get portrayed

A chronological telling of Verstappen's career means the meat of the documentary predictably starts with his FP1 outing for Toro Rosso as a 17-year-old at Suzuka in 2014.

There is a nice audio montage to emphasise the attention that was on Verstappen's age and unusual arrival into F1 after just one year of Formula 3 (a detail which is actually not specified) - before Max himself comes in.

"It's a tough one to answer if I was ready or not in 2015," Verstappen reflects. "But it's not many times you get the opportunity to get offered a drive in F1. So we said we have to take it because you don't know if it ever comes along again.

"Of course, there were a lot of question marks and questions asked if I was ready or not.

"Also I didn't know if I was ready or not. But I said to myself and my dad, 'We will see - you don't get this opportunity very often and we just go for it'."

That's one of three obvious big moments for the documentary to explore, the others being his first win in Spain in 2016, and the first title in 2021.

There's an unexpected tonal shift that borders on slapstick when the narration declares "help is coming, from Russia" after teeing up Verstappen's potential for a Red Bull Racing promotion in 2016, then shifts to jaunty accordion music with footage from the Sochi race that year, including a supercut of Daniil Kvyat's collisions with Sebastian Vettel that ensure his seat will immediately be given to Verstappen.

Unfortunately, the Barcelona win itself is a run-of-the-mill retelling, beyond Verstappen's talking head reflecting on the value of it reducing some pressure as some people were "still questioning the move", and calling it a "nice little statement".

As for 2021, much of his fight with Lewis Hamilton is surprisingly reduced to quick clips, including the Abu Dhabi crescendo. And Max's talking head is a broad brushstrokes reflection on the year as a whole.

Beyond the most career-defining moments, the most interesting theme explored is Verstappen's relationship with his team-mates.

Verstappen's run-ins with Carlos Sainz at Toro Rosso are visited twice: first the points-scoring finish in Singapore in 2015 after refusing team orders late-on, then an awkward race and a clash in the Australia 2016 season opener.

It's a shame there isn't a little more commentary on this from Verstappen or his camp, but at least such moments are acknowledged. What is a nice touch is using interviews with Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez to help tell the story of how racing alongside Verstappen in the same team became an almost impossible job.

And let's just say it is bold for the documentary to state, as fact, that Perez crashed deliberately in qualifying in Monaco 2022 to score pole (and ultimately the win) there. While that is what many believe, including the Verstappen camp, it's never been definitively proven.

However, it's part of a good case study as it revives the brief Verstappen/Perez tension that culminated in Verstappen rejecting a Red Bull team order in Brazil later that year.

The shame once again is that it isn't combined with any revealing Verstappen commentary on the matter.

Does it deliver?

This is the 12th Verstappen documentary from Viaplay, which holds F1 TV rights in the Netherlands and other territories and has had a direct partnership with Verstappen since 2022. 

It has previously featured Verstappen in exclusive interviews, reviews of specific seasons, and other behind-the-scenes titles like Off the Beaten Track, a three-part exploration into off-track matters like his fledgling race team ownership and the sim racing exploits he is renowned for.

In 2023, Viaplay released Max Verstappen - Anatomy of a Champion, which used interviews with Verstappen, his friends, family and team-mates, to “examine the relationships that helped him become the driver he is”. But the new 10-year documentary is further from that kind of portrait and more akin to a boilerplate review production.

In terms of the style, audio cues and use of talking heads - and with appreciation that this may be creating a very niche venn diagram of viewing habits - the documentary feels like the offspring of a classic Duke season review/Premier League Years/Drive to Survive.

But the content is what matters. The promotion promises an "inspiring documentary" that "takes a deep dive into his remarkable journey, revisiting the defining moments, record-breaking victories and intense rivalries that have shaped his career".

Deep dive is probably an oversell, as is the claim it is the "ultimate look back" at his decade in F1 - especially as, while this is the first time a UK audience gets to see it, its 2024 production means the documentary ends unsatisfyingly early, without closure on last season.

It's more a whistle-stop tour of '10 years of Verstappen' exactly, and its priority isn't really to unearth anything illuminating about those years, more just tell the story of them in an engaging way.

Which, for the most part, it does. But its appeal stands or falls on how much a fan wants to take a trip down memory lane with the occasional Verstappen reflection thrown in.