The rise of Max Verstappen – F1’s youngest ever winner
Max Verstappen exploded onto the Formula 1 scene in 2015, and
his rise has been nothing short of remarkable. He has rewritten what many
though possible for a driver at such a young age. He has caused controversy,
created splendour, and enlivened many a race in his so far short career. Along
the way, there have been many impressive drives, culminating in his stunning
first win for Red Bull in Spain this year.
The start of something special
Perhaps the first indication that Max was indeed a special
driver, came in Malaysia 2015. Qualifying was held in atrocious conditions, and
Max made it safely to Q3. During the session, he qualified in an incredible 6th
position. The race was even more impressive. Some incredible race
craft,particulary going around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo, netted a solid
7th place finish. This made him the youngest points scorer in F1
history, at 17 years and 180 days. He beat Danii Kvyat’s record of 19 years and
324 days by more than two years.
Malaysia was the first indication that Max’s age would not
hinder him. Far from it, it looked like it might actually help him. Could he go
on to achieve Sebastian Vettel like success, except even younger? The Chinese
Grand Prix showed even more promise.
Braking perfection
The next race in Shanghai showed the incredible overtaking
talent of Verstappen. Battling with the Sauber’s, he made some stunning
overtaking moves into the hairpin at the end of Shanghai’s back straight, at
one point virtually frightening Marcus Ericsson out of the way. He hadn’t
expected an underpowered Toro Rosso to be up his inside! A similar move was
made on Ericsson’s teammate, Felipe Nasr. As Verstappen made his mark, teammate
Sainz was spinning to the back at turn one. Sainz was currently being rather
overshadowed. Sadly, for Verstappen, all of his hard work went unrewarded. Just
a couple of laps from the end of the race, his car came to a shuddering halt,
thanks to a technical failure. A gutting end to a brilliant drive.
Overtaking
Brilliance
Max showed further overtaking perfection in the Belgian Grand
Prix. He pulled a stunning move around the outside of Nasr into Blanchimont,
going off the track but keeping his foot down, before completing the move into
the bus stop chicane.
Further brilliance was shown in the penultimate race of the
year, in Brazil. Verstappen made a stunning move around the outside of Perez
into the Senna esses, quite possibly his overtake of the season. This followed
some bold moves on the likes of Vettel in the US Grand Prix, where he took
another fourth place finish. He only narrowly missed out on the podium as well.
Verstappens bold overtaking was gaining him a remarkable number of fans, in
what was a frustratingly one sided 2015 season.
Meteor
Rising
Verstappen’s rise to the top has been meteoric. After four races
of 2016, Daniil Kvyat was dropped from the main Red Bull team, and Verstappen
was put in his place. The move was seen as controversial, particularly as Kvyat
had taken Red Bull’s first podium of the season in China. The switch came ahead
of the Spanish Grand Prix.
No one expected Verstappen to get up to speed with the RB12
instantly. It would always to take to get used to a new car, particularly one
as good as the ever improving Red Bull. But his speed in practice was
impressive, finishing fourth behind teammate Ricciardo. He claimed he was still
getting up to speed too, which was encouraging for the rest of the weekend!
Qualifying though was fantastic, and he forced Ricciardo into leaving it to the
wire to decide who would line up behind the Mercedes pair. After a mistake by
Hamilton put him provisionally second, Verstappen eventually took fourth, a
stunning lap from Ricciardo just edging him out. It was a terrific performance
though for his first qualifying with Red Bull.
Then came race day…
Barely
legal for the Champagne
We all know what happened on lap one. Rosberg and Hamilton
took each-other before the race had hardly begun, which left the Red Bull’s one
and two, Ricciardo leading. And thus followed quite possibly the race of the
season so far. Ricciardo restarted the race well following the safety car, with
Carlos Sainz third. The Ferrari pair swiftly passed the Toro Rosso. Vettel and
Raikkonen were arguably faster than the Red Bull’s. Indeed, when in clear air,
Vettel was quicker than the RB12’s. But the Red Bull’s superior traction out of
the last corner meant the Ferrari’s never had the chance to pass them into turn
one with the DRS.
As the race went on, Ricciardo couldn’t quite drop
Verstappen. He followed in his footsteps, matching, and sometimes bettering,
his pace. Things then began to get very interesting! Vettel and Ricciardo were
on different strategies than Verstappen and Raikkonen. They were on the
favoured three stop, with the other pair on the two stopper. This strategy
shafted Ricciardo, cycling him behind Vettel after the last pit stops.
Verstappen though, was managing his tyres beautifully, but Raikkonen was
bearing down on him. There were three questions that needed answering. Would
the Ferrari and Red Bull’s tyres last? Would Vettel and Ricciardo catch them?
And, if they stayed ahead of their teammates, would Raikkonen get past
Verstappen?
As it turned out, neither Vettel or Ricciardo caught
Verstappen. The Australian’s left rear blew up with just a handful of laps to
go, after failing to pass Vettel. Vettel never closed up to the pair ahead due
his battles with Ricciardo. And despite immense pressure, Verstappen held off
Raikkonen and took a stunning first win in only his first start with Red Bull.
It was the biggest
sporting news of the weekend, and made headlines all around the globe. He had
defied all the critics who had questioned his promotion to F1 pre 2015. He had
shown that age is just a number. He had done something incredible. At the age
of just 18, Max Verstappen was a Grand Prix winner.
The star
still rises
The following race in Monaco was a disaster for Verstappen,
crashing out in both qualifying and the race. But since then, impressive drives
have followed in Canada, Austria, and Silverstone, to net three more podiums. A
disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix was soon forgotten about with another podium
in Germany.
Verstappen’s star continues to rise. The question is, how far
can it continue to do so?