Current Max Verstappen

2015 sees the arrival of the youngest driver ever to sit in an F1 car. Max Verstappen was born on 30th September 1997 and, assuming he makes the grid in Australia, will only be 17 years and 167 days, beating Jaime Alguersuaris' record by 1 year and 323 days (assuming my maths is correct).

How can such a young man be ready for F1? As the son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen Max started racing karts at 4½ years old. In 2006 he won the Belgian Minimax Championship in the KF5 category and in 2007 he won both the Dutch and Belgian titles as well as the Belgian Cadet Championship.

In 2009 he won the KF5 Flemish Championship and moved up to International Karting. In 2010 Max finished 2nd in the KF3 World Cup, won the Euro Series and the WSK World Series. In 2011 he again won the WSK World Series and moved up the KF2 class winning the WSK Master Series and the South Garda Winter Cup in 2012. In 2013, at 15 years of age, Verstappen won the World KZ Championship, which is highest level of karting.

For 2014 Max moved up to European Formula 3. He finished 3rd in the Championship winning 10 of the 33 races, more than those who finished above him in the title race. Max was recruited into the Red Bull Young Driver Programme in August 2014 and only 6 days later was announced as one of the drivers for Toro Rosso in F1 for 2015. Apparently he was also being courted by Mercedes for their young driver programme so you have to wonder how much the pull of an F1 seat at Toro Rosso drove the decision to go with Red Bull.

Having already taken part in 3 Friday sessions as a test driver Max Verstappen is the youngest person ever to take part in a Grand Prix weekend. If he acquits himself well during 2015 many will say it is an inspired decision. If he turns into a mobile chicane or treats F1 like a destruction derby I'm sure many questions will be asked as to why someone not even old enough to qualify for a driving licence in his home country is allowed to get behind the wheel of a car at the pinnacle of motorsport.

Future Champion? One season (or even one race) wonder? 2015 will be very interesting for Max Verstappen.
 
Verstappen has admitted to making mistakes today which is quite nice, as it may mean that he'll work on his racecraft.
Dr. Marko in an interview with ORF said, "today we saw who can overtake and who can't." Harsh words, but also very true.
 
He doesn’t seem spatially aware. If he had tried Danny Rics pass on Bottas at the same speed and got it wrong, they would both have been seriously injured
 
Rutherford

Harsh words from Helmut but then Max should have won the race being the lead Red Bull but threw it away with amateurish driving

He's made 3 mistakes in 3 races and had 1 qualifying crash, been penalised for 1 incident and and involved damaged his car coming together in another

If he was not Max Verstappen but Dani Kyvat he might have been dropped next race
 
Unfair on the sheer genius of Maldonado. I think Maldonado would be distraught to be compared to Verstappen since Verstappen is liable to:
  • Fail to fully commit to an incident by failing to finish.
  • Fail to fully commit to an incident by allowing his adversary to finish.
  • Get beaten by a team-mate, due to not getting Bruno Senna in the other car.
  • Fail to bring out a Safety Car.
  • Fail to hit Hamilton given a bloody good opportunity.
  • Fail to deliberately ram Hamilton
  • Go 3 or more races without hitting a Mexican.
  • Fail to boldly crash where no man has crashed before.
He’s not going to win a Canamasas Medal at this rate!
 
FB Yes he is in his 3rd season now so he should be starting to polish off those amateurish errors

Was not Saturday's crash the daftest thing he has done .. 5 minutes to go before the season ends and already in P1 and looking comfortable so why hurry around Sainz I think to complete the lap when he could abort and start again

In doing so he left his team 1 hour to repair a seriously wrecked car and cost them valuable points in the constructors. He might have won the race given his car's superiority and taken advantage of Ricciardo's situation

How many top drivers have that many incidents in 6 races? Either he is unlucky or he is careless and dangerous.

If his name was not Max Verstappen but Danii Kyvat he would have been demoted to Toro Rosso. Wait a minute that's already happened !!

He is living on reputation and I think the Red Bull hierarchy usually protect Max and this was the first time they showed some tough love and they should because it was unnecessary. He is throwing opportunities to win races when the team hands on to him

RasputinLives He aint learning is he ? Simple he needs to grow up

What Rosberg said maybe right https://www.planetf1.com/news/rosberg-i-dont-have-much-hope-for-verstappen/


--------------

Max needs to learn you can at 99% and become a more polished driver rather than 100% flat out and risk burying the car into the wall

The only person I can relate Max to is Kevin Schwantz in motorcyling racing. Schwantz was talented and fast but up against Rainey, I felt he was more liable to crash because he was making up for the bike deficiency in power plus his win at all cost attitude did not help. Whereas his rival Rainey rode within himself to make sure he delivers the results.
If Max can fine tune then he will develop in a great racing driver
 
The only person I can relate Max to is Kevin Schwantz in motorcyling racing. Schwantz was talented and fast but up against Rainey, I felt he was more liable to crash because he was making up for the bike deficiency in power plus his win at all cost attitude did not help. Whereas his rival Rainey rode within himself to make sure he delivers the results.
If Max can fine tune then he will develop in a great racing driver

The irony of that being that it was Rainey who had the career ending crash, which allowed Schwantz to take his only 500cc title.
 
sobriety Unfortunately for Rainey yes but Schwantz lost his edge because Rainey went and he suddenly realised he was not invincible anymore and the crashes started to take a toll on him to call it quits

A bit like Prost vs Senna when Prost retired , Senna began to start questioning himself a bit more and lost his edge
 
Back
Top Bottom