Max vs Charles: A timeline on F1's next big rivalry?

Senna vs Prost, Hamilton vs Rosberg, Schumacher vs Hill. Will Max Verstappen vs Charles Leclerc be the new showcase to capture the imaginations of the ever growing new F1 audience? This will be a timeline of the story so far which dates back to over a decade ago.

2012: The infamous clash that many consider to be the beginning of this rivalry, the WSK Euro Series round 2 is seen by many as the match that lit the fire between these two young drivers, in a karting incident where post race Max and Charles clashed as Max went into a puddle. This ”incident“ gave us the first look at the two 14 year old's competitive tension that was seen in the interviews post race where Max is irate at Charles’ racing during and after the race ends simply calling it ”unfair” while Charles casually says “it was just an incident”.

2015: Despite only 14 days being between Charles and Max's birthdays Max Verstappen had three years more experience in karting and racing overall compared to Charles which gave him an advantage in the end as he was brought into Toro Rosso who are Red Bull's junior team in F1 for the Australian Grand Prix in March 2015 at the tender age of 17 (was forced out of the race due to technical faults but competed well beforehand), meanwhile on the other hand Charles had to make a slower and more developed route to F1 competing in Formula 3 in 2015 and going onto win Formula 2 in its inaugural season of 2017.

2018: The 2018 F1 season saw us witness both Leclerc and Verstappen in the same race for the first time since 2013 and the karting battles that began this rivalry, Leclerc competed in F1 for the first time in the Australian Grand Prix with Sauber who are a partner team of Ferrari using their engines and their development team to gain drivers, Leclerc gained his highest position 6th in Azerbaijan this season which was Sauber's highest finish since the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the same one Max Verstappen first debuted in for Toro Rosso (quite coincidental). Max with three years more experience was certainly showing it gaining 11 podiums with two wins in the 2018 campaign with Toro Rosso's parent constructors Red Bull who he signed to after his first full season in 2017.

2019: The 2019 season is a memorable one in this rivalry as it was the first time we started to see the two drivers battling each other on the biggest stage after Charles Leclerc signed to Ferrari, the two main battles happened in week 9 (Austria) and week 10 (Great Britain).

The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix gave F1 fans the first taste of these two great drivers battling at the top of the grid with Leclerc leading for many of the race until three laps before the end Max used an aggressive move that bumped Charles onto the outside of the track with Max going onto take the lead and win the race, flashbacks of 2012 and that race were quite evident with Charles now being the one irate at the aggressive racing style of Max who didn't believe he did anything wrong, a full role reverse from the previous karting clash mentioned.

Charles went onto say later on that he believes that race was beneficial to him as it helped his style become a lot more aggressive and defensive when he needed to be just like Max has been throughout his F1 career, this learning and development that Charles went through was seen merely two weeks after this incident with an excellent defensive display and exciting long battle between the two racers with Leclerc coming out on top and gaining a podium finish at 3rd while Max finished 5th.

2020/2021: After the hype of the 2019 battles between Leclerc and Verstappen, there was more of an expectation that these two great drivers would push themselves and also the champion at the time Lewis Hamilton to challenge for the F1 championship, although this was not the case for Leclerc who seemed to stay in the same position and at points drop below the expectations that were set on him only gaining three podiums in the 2020 and 2021 seasons and finishing 8th and 7th in the Driver Championships.

This was not the case for Verstappen who finished 3rd pushing the two Mercedes Drivers Bottas and Hamilton alone in 2020 and then in 2021 going onto win the F1 Championship for the first time ever after one of the best seasons in recent time which climaxed with Verstappen overtaking Hamilton on the final lap to win the race and the title.

2022: This takes us up to the present day where the first two races have saw Max and Leclerc battling it out for first with Leclerc taking the lead late on in Bahrain winning the first race and Max holding out and defending against Leclerc to gain his first race win of the season in Saudi Arabia, Max's championship rival last season Lewis Hamilton has dropped off the pace so far this season which has certainly benefitted this Leclerc Verstappen rivalry that has been growing in potential over the last 10 years, both drivers are performing really well under new car regulations made by F1 for the 2022 season which has made the battles on the track more frequent for all drivers and in this case suits both Leclerc and Verstappen's racing styles perfectly, the expectation for this rivalry has always been there and it seems to be living up to that expectation now.

If these first two races of the 2022 season are anything to go off we could see a serious rivalry for the ages which is something that F1 has lacked since Rosberg retired from the sport in 2016 in my opinion, the future ability of F1 to gain interest and interaction after Hamilton retires looks safe and exciting with this new F1 rivalry. This timeline symbolizes no end but the beginning of F1's new generation.