He’s not even old enough to take his driving test, but 16
year old Max Verstappen has been chosen to drive for Toro Rosso in 2015
replacing Jean-Eric Vergne. Having only just joined the Red Bull young driver
program it’s certainly a dramatic promotion to Formula 1 as he’s been out of
karting less than a year.
But have no doubts this guy is sensational, he ripped it up
in karting winning many championships and has only graduated to cars this year
where he currently lies second in the European Formula 3 championship with
eight wins. He must be good for Red Bull’s young driver program is notoriously
tough and with the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr on their books, it’s amazing they’ve
had the faith in him to commit him to Formula 1 so soon.
He’ll be the youngest ever driver on a Formula 1 grid when
he starts the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at just 17 years old beating former
Red Bull young driver Jaime Alguersuari. Current Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat
was 19 when he made his debut this year having won the 2013 GP3 title, but even
someone so young had been competiting in cars since 2010 unlike Verstappen who’ll
have only one year behind him.
It can work out well of course, Kimi Raikkonen had only a
year of car racing behind him when he was signed by Sauber for his Formula 1
debut in 2001, six years later he was world champion. Of course it doesn’t
always work out so well, the aforementioned Alguersuari was promoted early, and
despite an increasingly good performance in his two and a half years he was
unceremoniously dropped and out of Formula 1 at just 21 years old.
Unfortunately he hasn’t managed to find a way back although he has signed up to
drive for Virgin in the exciting prospect of Formula E.
Verstappen’s own father Jos was relatively young for Formula
1 back in 1994 at just 22 after just a few years in cars, he was seen as an
exciting prospect. But he was thrown in at the deep end as test driver for
Benetton when he was called up to be team mate to Michael Schumacher in one of
the most controversial seasons the sport has ever known, much of the uproar
centred round that team.
He floundered and although he survived in Formula 1
sporadically until 2003 his potential was not realised. The hype surrounding
Max is much more, but he’s already shown he can hold his own in car racing and
with six rounds left can still win this Formula 3 championship.
Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost said "We consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of
the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental
strength to take on this challenge successfully."
The team obviously have
faith in their new signing, and with people having had doubts about Kvyat being
brought in too early being proved emphatically wrong, the future looks good for
Verstappen especially with all the help the team and the engineers can support
him with now. The Formula 1 press are certainly excited by the prospect saying
his car control and the way he handles the car is extremely impressive for one
so young.
I just hope he is given
time, usually Toro Rosso will invest in their new drivers for at least two
seasons so Max will have a phase of learning. I hope he can put it together
because to be washed up by Formula 1 at just 19 would be a terrible for him.
However the way he’s being talked about and the way he’s driving this year, his
prospects look anything but terrible, already he is being talked about as the
next big star of Formula 1.
We’ll wait and see, time
must be given, but he’ll certainly be being watched very closely when the
lights go out in Melbourne next year.
all photo's of autosport.com
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