Max Verstappen is too young to be cynical and too enthusiastic to be jaded by the Formula One circus. Yet sitting down with the 19-year-old is still somewhat disconcerting. The Red Bull driver, a grand prix winner after two seasons, looks and sounds like a teenager but his words convey such conviction it is difficult to marry the youth occasionally fiddling with his phone to the driver explaining he has no fear battling former world champions. His belief is absolute.
The latter is a word Verstappen uses a lot. When asked if he is ready to take on Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, beginning at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, the Dutchman is unequivocal. “Absolutely. For me it doesn’t matter if you are fighting a world champion or not,” he says. “I’m not worried about that.”
Ostensibly, this level of self-belief is normal. It is a prerequisite of competing in F1. Ayrton Senna had it in spades but what makes it stand out in Verstappen is that his career – the good and the bad – is a result of his unwavering commitment to Max being Max.
He graduated to Formula One after karting and a season in Formula Three, and drove for Toro Rosso in 2015. A little more than 12 months later he was taken on by the senior team and won on his debut in Spain. The rest of the year was a whirlwind.
His move on Nico Rosberg at Silverstone, going round the outside at Becketts, was one of a driver who has faith in his ability. The German was the victim of a similar move in Brazil, when Verstappen went outside him on turn three, an inch-perfect act of daring.
Brazil was a tour de force for Verstappen. He drove superbly in the wet, came back from 16th to take third place – reminiscent of a young Hamilton scything through the field at Turkey’s 2006 GP2 race – and after spinning on the final corner pulled off a save that was pure instinctive skill. His team principal, among many others, recognised his talent. “That was one of the best drives I’ve seen in Formula One,” Christian Horner said.
For Verstappen it was normal. “This is what I have always done in my life, just racing and driving cars and go-karts fast,” he says. “I have always been relaxed and that made me fast and so I will have the same approach if fighting for a world title. It will get more intense but you have to be fully on top of it all the time.”
He has attracted criticism, not least when he moved to block Raikkonen on the Kemmel straight at Spa last year. It was breathtaking but for all the wrong reasons, largely in being spectacularly dangerous. It was one of several such manoeuvres that led the FIA to redefine the rules on moving under braking. Part of the reason it did so was Verstappen did not accept the criticism from other drivers was deserved. He still does not. “The biggest critic I have in my life is my dad so everything else is just a breeze; it doesn’t really matter to me,” he says. “As a driver it is important to focus on yourself and believe in yourself and there shouldn’t be a reason why, when you are in F1 and there is more attention, you change your approach.”
He is backed steadfastly in this by Horner. “He has the petulance of youth,” he says. “He pushes, he challenges but that’s what you want to see in a driver. You want there to be a pure spirit in there and not try to dampen it down and over‑manage it. Like any artist in many respects, you have to give them the freedom to breathe. He is growing in experience every grand prix and getting stronger and stronger. The potential is what is so exciting.”
The teenager is a rare find but racecraft, particularly in the case of avoiding dangerous moves, must become a priority. Verstappen concedes he is “always learning and nobody is a finished product”.
That the driver who overtook the most cars last season believes he can be that finished product, at least in the sense of becoming world champion, is part of the conviction that belies his years. He has no thought of changing his driving style and to an extent we should hope he does not. If it can be tempered with better judgment, Formula One will have much to enjoy.
Might that be sooner rather than later, with a tilt at the title this year? We will have to see how his car stands up in Melbourne. But if he has a shot, he will take it. “It is very important to be yourself and just focus on yourself,” he says. “Because you know exactly what you have to do. The most important thing is just being faster than everyone else and that is what I am aiming for.”
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