How Verstappen became F1's most exciting talent

Formula 1 has not been the same since Max Verstappen arrived on the scene. At a time of existential crisis for F1, fear over declining audiences, uncertainty amid a shifting media landscape, and an inability to connect with new fans, here is a driver who draws crowds.

People turn up to grands prix to watch Max Verstappen race. The way he has risen meteorically from 15-year-old karting star to European Formula 3 ace, to Red Bull junior driver, to Toro Rosso star rookie, to Red Bull F1 driver and grand prix winner, all in the space of little more than three years, is quite extraordinary.

It is reminiscent of Kimi Raikkonen's elevation in 2001 as the reigning Formula Renault UK champion.

Verstappen's rise is so rapid that it has led the FIA to change the regulations in order to prevent drivers progressing to Formula 1 before they are old enough to drive on Europe's roads, as was the case with Verstappen when he made his F1 practice debut with Toro Rosso at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, aged 17.

Red Bull has turned Verstappen into F1's youngest ever driver and now, thanks to his victory in this year's Spanish Grand Prix, its youngest ever winner.

But the excitement surrounding the Dutch teenager is about much more than the records he has already broken, and the many more he is likely to break still. Red Bull genuinely believes this kid possesses superstar qualities.

Verstappen has been outstanding during his short time in F1. But it's not only the strong results that have caught the attention - it's the manner of his performances.

The unruffled way he has delivered strong drives with very few mistakes, and with hardly any dips in form. And an imperviousness to pressure that all true elite performers possess.

The scale of the impact he has made already is undeniable, and is already justifying Red Bull's controversial decision to fast-track him from F3 to the pinnacle of single-seater racing.

Every so often a driver comes along that changes the face of Formula 1. Through force of personality, feats of wonder behind the wheel, and sheer dazzling achievement, they redefine what it means to be an F1 driver.

If he maintains his current trajectory Max Verstappen could well turn out to be the driver who defines the next era of this sport.

He sat down with Autosport to discuss exactly how he came to be F1's most exciting driver.

VERSTAPPEN ON: GENESIS - LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

Like most professional racing drivers, Verstappen began his education in karting, and, like most kids starting out in kart racing, Verstappen took those first tentative steps with the help of his father.

But Verstappen's father Jos, himself a grand prix driver from 1994-2003, didn't just take Max karting for the sheer fun of it. He instilled a fastidious discipline within his son, urging him to behave like a professional driver from an early stage, and bringing to bear the benefit of hindsight from his own career, which failed to live up to the early promise Jos showed.

Verstappen did well in karting, alerting Red Bull to his promise at an early stage, but Jos continued to manage Max's career in his own way - pushing him hard and even taking him into unusual categories, such as KZ, to broaden his horizons and furnish his son with extra skills.

This kind of 'shifter-kart' category allows a young driver to learn about gear changing and brake-balance adjustment before they move into car racing. European and world titles in this category, combined with victory in the more conventional European KF series, convinced Jos that Max was ready to move into car racing at the end of 2013.

"The plan changed a bit, because we didn't expect to have such a successful 2013 in go-karting," explains Max. "I was planning to do another year of that, but if you win everything in that season you can't stay! You have to move forwards.

"Go-karting is of course where you learn all the basics to become a very good driver. When you jump in cars it cannot work out for some drivers, because it is very different, but if you have the right education and the right feeling of how to drive a go-kart and a car you can do it.

"It's always a difficult jump, but if you have the right people behind you to support and guide you in a good way, you can make it in a very successful manner."

Verstappen mulled over various options, testing in different single-seater categories, before eventually deciding to jump straight into the FIA's European Formula 3 championship.

This is normally the sort of series young drivers would contest with two or three seasons of car racing experience under their belts, but Verstappen got on well with the car in testing and Jos was again conscious of pushing his son out of his comfort zone in order to accelerate his development.

A mid-season run of six consecutive victories at Spa and the Norisring finally convinced Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko that this teenager is the kind of once-in-a-generation talent he simply could not overlook.

"He won three races at Spa in F3, in very impressive fashion - overtaking a guy on the outside of Eau Rouge, and I saw his [wet] races at the Norisring on TV," explains Marko, who feels Red Bull's investment in Verstappen has "woken Mercedes and Ferrari up", inspiring them to back other young talents like Pascal Wehrlein, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc.

"It looked like he was cruising. The others were locking wheels, sliding off, understeer, oversteer, all over the place, and he was in a rhythm, like dancing. It was clear there is something different, something special."

Marko was also impressed with Verstappen outside of the car.

"Normally it takes 20 minutes with a young driver; him I was talking two hours! I couldn't believe I was sitting next to a boy who had the maturity of a 25-year-old man.

"Also, his knowledge about racing was unbelievable. He knew so many things from the past, how he wanted to build up his career."

Verstappen's F3 performances caught the eye of Mercedes too, but through Toro Rosso Red Bull could give Verstappen what he wanted - immediate promotion to F1.

VERSTAPPEN ON: MAKING AN IMPACT WITH TORO ROSSO

Verstappen made an immediate impact on his grand prix weekend debut, replacing Jean-Eric Vergne and lapping 12th fastest - within half a second of Daniil Kvyat - during first free practice for the 2014 Japanese GP.

"From the first test I did with him I was really impressed," Verstappen's former Toro Rosso race engineer Xevi Pujolar, now Sauber's chief track engineer, tells Autosport. "Just to see the car control he had - it was special.

"But now the young guys, especially someone who has been very well prepared in go-karts, can have very good car control. But to be fast, to be a champion, you need much more.

"I remember the first free practice we did at Suzuka. For me that is a very difficult track, a proper track. And to go with a Formula 1 car there, first time, in front of everyone, was very demanding. And he just did it, like bang! No problem.

"At that point I thought, 'That guy is massive'. But still you prepare for winter testing and you think, 'OK, when the pressure comes up how will he do?' And he's doing even better! For me he is the best guy I've ever seen."

Verstappen enjoyed an impressive debut season racing in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso, finishing 12th in the world championship and scoring two impressive fourth-placed finishes in the Hungarian and US GPs.

The fact that he was able to perform strongly paired with a fellow rookie in Carlos Sainz Jr, with far greater junior single-seater experience, helped Verstappen stand out further.

As well as being skilled enough to drive quickly and deliver big results when the opportunities presented themselves, Verstappen showed he is also the sort of driver who makes things happen for himself. He is daring, prepared to take risks to score big results rather than simply settling for what's there.

Going wheel-to-wheel with the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in the trickiest of conditions at Austin; driving around the outside of Felipe Nasr's Sauber at Blanchimont - a move he practiced in online racing - or driving around Sergio Perez through the Senna S at Interlagos. He has displayed an outstanding instinct for racing.

"I just felt that's what I had to do and that's how I drove," Verstappen explains. "It's difficult to say before you jump in the car that you have to do this and this and this, and it will turn out like this and this and this. It just goes with the flow I think.

"The confidence and to feel comfortable was [the result of] a lot of talking with my dad - how to prepare and how to approach a weekend, and the general experience from when I was very young up until F3. Before you jump into a Formula 1 car it helps to have a dad who has done it himself.

"Sometimes I had to take some risky moves because we were missing top speed, so then you have to try it in other places. Definitely last year at Spa and in Brazil we just weren't having the top speed we wanted and you have to try very risky moves, but when it pays off it is of course a great move!

"I was very happy with my first season. I couldn't imagine a better start to Formula 1. And the team did a great job. Of course we made some mistakes - from both sides - but you learn from it. That's what Toro Rosso is about. It's a junior team where you learn how to become a very good and professional driver."

But that early education with his father also accelerated Verstappen's progression outside of the car. Those who worked with Verstappen at Toro Rosso suggest this has been key in allowing him to enter F1 as a more mature and rounded operator than would otherwise be normal for a teenager with only one season of single-seater racing under his belt.

"We could see when he joined us he was mature for his age," agrees STR technical director James Key. "He was born into motor racing, and has a dad who knows all the old tricks, knows how to handle himself and what to look out for.

"We've had three really good young drivers with us over the past few years: Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz Jr and Max - and if you look at all of their first years they were all actually very close in terms of how quickly they learned and what they were able to do.

"They had different pluses and minuses. Daniil had and still has, though he's been through a transition recently, massive natural speed; Carlos is very mature and very technically astute, very controlled; and Max is a combination of both, but also a racer with real determination.

"You could see right from the outset he had the aggression, and the racer's mentality of 'I must beat the guy ahead of me'. He never settled for where he was. He had the most aggressive determination to race and succeed.

"He's able to control that aggression and that racing approach at levels that are just about sensible. You could see that develop as he got used to the car. His racecraft was the standout thing. Carlos was typically quicker in qualifying, they were both very close in lap time, but Max in his first year had that edge in racing."

VERSTAPPEN ON: A TENSE ENDING TO LIFE WITH SAINZ

Verstappen and Sainz headed into this season knowing, like all Red Bull juniors, that they must out-do each other to prove to their paymasters they are worthy of promotion to the A-team.

In the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen went rogue when he saw team-mate Sainz pit behind him, thinking the team was handing Sainz strategic advantage rather than reacting to excessive tyre wear.

Both cars ended up at the bottom of the top 10, instead of inside the top six where they should have been.

The atmosphere inside the team became tense, and STR subsequently reshuffled its engineering department, parting ways with Verstappen's race engineer Pujolar following Verstappen's promotion to Red Bull.

"The whole group, myself and Toro Rosso, always wanted the best," Verstappen explains. "We were very motivated all the time, and sometimes when it doesn't work out after a great starting position everybody gets really emotional.

"We are all racers, we always want the best, and also from those situations you learn. Afterwards, when I got the promotion, of course Xevi was fired, along with my performance engineer Olivier [Helvig], which was not nice to see because they are great guys and I think they were definitely the best inside Toro Rosso.

"I think it was a loss for the team, and you can see they are struggling a bit more recently, and with Xevi now onboard with Sauber they will definitely make good progress."

The team insists the engineering reshuffle had nothing to do with Max directly, though it is understood there were sometimes difficulties managing the influence of his father.

The Melbourne incident followed a minor controversy in Singapore last year, when Verstappen refused team orders to allow Sainz past.

But rather than seeing these events as examples of temperamental weakness, Red Bull was impressed by Verstappen's capacity to display a champion's ruthless streak of selfishness at such a tender age.

"I've had a lot of talks with my dad of course, but in general... I don't know, I never really think about how I have to behave or get into a team," Verstappen says. "I just be the normal Max - be the person I am and not try to be someone else, because people will find out very soon!"

Many drivers take far too long to realise their own power, and the need to sometimes assert themselves within a team, instead getting browbeaten by more experienced F1 personnel. But with the benefit of his dad's experience, Verstappen is not falling into that trap.

"He is very demanding," reveals Pujolar. "Not when he's in the car, but out of the car during the week he wants to know what's happening with everything. He keeps everyone awake.

"I'm sure when Jos and him were working in go-karts he had the best equipment, but because they worked to have the best equipment. And he wants to have the Formula 1 team the same.

"Everyone needs to be on top of his game. He will push everyone to operate at the top. And if he sees people not doing that he's not happy.

"But at the same time he will be very open and friendly. He's pushing everyone, but he comes across very well with the people in the team. Everyone wants to work with him."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says there is still a certain naivety to Verstappen, which you would expect for someone so young. He has made the odd immature outburst over team radio, as well as becoming embroiled in those internal STR controversies.

But Verstappen's general attitude seems more cultivated than naive. He has a ruthless determination to his character that simply will not yield - a 'win at all costs' mentality reminiscent of Schumacher and Senna. Verstappen dares the world to stop him, because he will do whatever it takes to succeed.

"That shows he is self-confident - that he knows what he wants," reckons STR team boss Tost. "He doesn't ask, he doesn't look to the left, look to the right, he just goes for it.

"I personally like these drivers. I always say, 'Please bring me bastards, I don't want the holy child!' because you can only be successful with these drivers. He has all the ingredients you need."

VERSTAPPEN ON: PROMOTION TO RED BULL AND VICTORY IN SPAIN

Verstappen made big waves in the F1 ocean very quickly, and that began to exert pressure further up the Red Bull food chain. Red Bull knew it had hold of a special talent that rivals would seek to prise away at the first opportunity.

So when incumbent Kvyat failed to find consistent form at the beginning of this season - struggling particularly under braking, according to Marko - Red Bull decided to drop the Russian back into Toro Rosso and promote Verstappen in Kvyat's place, "killing two birds with one stone", according to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

Verstappen's first weekend with the Red Bull A-team couldn't have been more outstanding. He came within one run of outqualifying team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on his debut at the Spanish GP, and ended up winning his first grand prix with the team after the two Mercedes drivers took each other out on the first lap.

"It was definitely the best start possible!" reckons Verstappen. "When you jump into a new team and they expect a lot from you, and straightaway you win your first race, it just gives you a great confidence boost.

"It helps you relax of course, but on the other hand I was never too worried about that [the pressure]. I was just trying to do the best possible job.

"They asked me to just enjoy it and be a consistent driver, and I've shown over the course of the races that I'm scoring the points for the team. I think that's also very important - not just to win a race but to be there all the time to score points."

Verstappen defeated Raikkonen thanks principally to supreme management of the Pirelli tyres. Team-mate Ricciardo led the race, and felt hard done by strategically afterwards, but Verstappen's pace and ability to hang on better to the medium tyre helped put him in the driving seat.

He held off Raikkonen during a superb 32-lap final stint, defeating one of F1's principal tyre-management masters. But Verstappen owes a debt of thanks to hard lessons learned during winter testing with Toro Rosso at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit.

"Normally it takes a rookie driver about a year to learn how to do tyre management properly - not go over the top or undershoot - and both our drivers made a big step in winter testing this year," explains Key.

"Last year we had some tyre issues related to the car - where the rear axle struggled a bit, particularly in hot conditions. We tended to be at the top end of the temperature ranges when you looked at the Pirelli data, so we knew we needed extra tyre management.

"We began to develop better ways of tyre management, we refined that over the winter, and we refined the car to be a little bit easier on the tyres as well, and in winter testing we specifically went for tyre management afternoons for both drivers - to really get on top of it.

"We pushed the drivers to work in a certain way on these longer runs and it began to click. Although it didn't work in Australia, at other events it worked really well. It must have helped Max to go into Red Bull knowing a little bit more about how to manage those tyres properly."

VERSTAPPEN ON: HIS RED BULL TEAM-MATES

Apart from a tough weekend at Monaco, where Verstappen crashed twice, his form has been excellent. He's scored five further podiums and enough points to help Red Bull overtake Ferrari for second in the constructors' championship battle.

"With Carlos we were both rookies, so you always want to show yourself, but I've been very happy with what I've done," says Verstappen. "Of course I got the jump to Red Bull, so I think that says enough...

"With Daniel we have a very healthy relationship. He's a great guy and very open. We try to help the team forward, so there are no secrets, which is good.

"He's a very quick driver. I think we both have had to step up. We are both pushing each other, which is very good, and I think you can see since I joined the team that we have definitely taken the challenge to Ferrari, and sometimes Mercedes."

The only aspect Verstappen seems to have struggled with is qualifying. Not in the Kvyat sense of qualifying further down the grid than the car merits, but in the fact that he's only beaten Ricciardo four times in 13 attempts since they became team-mates.

But Verstappen himself admits he needs a full season at Red Bull to build up enough experience at every circuit to maximise car set-up for qualifying.

And, as Horner points out, "he's up against probably the best in the business". Ricciardo is arguably the most outstanding driver on the grid this season, but he says Verstappen joining Red Bull has forced him to raise his own game.

"Already the first session in Barcelona he didn't hesitate," says Ricciardo, who reckons Verstappen is able to communicate with engineers at a more mature level than he could at that age. "He's able to get into it pretty quickly, so if I have a scrappy run it's likely that I won't be quicker.

"Sometimes I could get away with a scrappy run over the past couple of years. He's always there, and bringing pretty good intensity all the time. That's good. I like to think I do, but sometimes you need to be pushed a little bit.

"I've got a pretty sick qualifying record against him, but it hasn't come easy. I feel my game has probably lifted as well. It's been pretty cool."

VERSTAPPEN ON: HIS CONTROVERSIAL RACECRAFT

Moving in the higher circles of F1 has also brought unwelcome attention, as Verstappen has found himself embroiled in controversy over his aggressive brand of racecraft.

He's garnered negative attention for making late defensive moves in braking zones, which led to a war of words with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who said Verstappen's aggression in battle could end up killing someone.

"To be honest it's a trend with the young drivers," reckons Ricciardo. "I've never raced with an older guy and had them moving under braking. I had it with Carlos last year; I've had it with Dani [Kvyat] before. Max has done it now with a few people.

"That's potentially a little bit of immaturity or inexperience. I think it's arriving on the scene and wanting to be the big dog. Sure, we all come here and want to win, but there's a right way of doing it. It doesn't mean you can't race hard, but there's a right way.

"I think a lot of his racecraft he probably learned from karting. In karting you've got to force your way through and because everyone's so close you've got to be there from the start. If not you go backwards so quickly.

"And if I'm really honest, I think I set a bit of a trend in 2014. I see a lot more people doing these cool overtakes since 2014 - a lot more people are having a crack!"

Verstappen is adamant he won't alter his approach. "I think it's good for the sport to have different opinions about drivers," he explains. "At the end we are racing drivers so we know exactly what is possible or not. If you really want to crash you can crash, but I think experienced and good Formula 1 drivers know what to do - and that's why we don't crash.

"For me it's fine. I just enjoy what I'm doing, and I won't change because that's who I am. This is where it brought me so far in Formula 1 and it's good for the sport to have more attention, and more action!"

This attitude is something Verstappen's former team boss Franz Tost applauds.

"I like the way Max is driving and that's part of the game," argues Tost, who feels some drivers on the grid have perhaps become too friendly with each other in recent years.

"Max is not inviting someone just to pass him, that's the new way of driving. Like in other kinds of sport everything has become more aggressive, and that's also what people want to see - fights."

But even Tost feels Verstappen went too far when racing Raikkonen at August's Belgian Grand Prix. He collided with Raikkonen at the first corner after the start, as he dived inside the Finn's Ferrari at La Source just as Vettel turned in from the outside line.

That unfortunate collision was blamed for triggering a later incident, where Verstappen moved late to block Raikkonen at over 200mph on the Kemmel Straight.

Many felt Verstappen overstepped the mark, and Raikkonen suggested Verstappen was giving "payback" for what happened at the first corner.

Marko confirms it was a revenge move from Verstappen, but not for the reason most people thought.

"What people didn't see on TV is the lap before [the incident] when Raikkonen went off, he didn't give the position back until the Bus Stop, knowing - old, clever Raikkonen - that he will now have DRS up the hill," explains Marko.

"And that annoyed Max. It was not the first-corner incident, it was this [delay] on purpose."

Verstappen has not been officially sanctioned for any of these controversies, though he was summoned to speak to FIA race director Charlie Whiting after the Spa contretemps. But regardless, Red Bull does not want Verstappen to alter his approach.

"At Spa I told him don't care about all the rubbish people speak," Marko adds. "If you want to succeed in Formula 1 you have to show the established ones.

"I remember there was nearly a fight with Senna and Schumacher at Hockenheim. Schumacher didn't move out of Senna's way and he nearly hit him.

"I was with Gerhard Berger for one year going to all the races when he was driving for McLaren.

"First lap at Imola there were six to eight Italian drivers - all these Fondmetal teams. Friday, first lap, all the Italians were driving like it was the last lap to win the grand prix.

"And in between all these drivers was Senna, in his yellow helmet, driving the same - really hard on the other drivers, pushing them to the side and so on.

"Senna is doing nothing without thinking. And when you watched races, if Senna was lapping everybody disappeared [out of his way]. With Berger they didn't. Senna trained for that, so I told Max 'well done!' You are getting your status."

Of course there is always the danger of early burnout with such a young prodigy, or that he could become distracted by external elements of the F1 lifestyle that prevent him from fulfilling his potential, but Red Bull is convinced Verstappen will not fall into this trap.

"He's got tremendous car control, he's got very strong natural ability, he's intelligent, he's got huge self-belief and confidence, and tremendous racecraft. The only thing he lacks is experience," says Horner.

"Everything he's demonstrated so far shows that he's got the potential to be a champion in the future. There's a big difference when you're competing for a championship, so only time will tell..."

But so far time has told a tale that reflects very well on Red Bull, and vindicates its decision to risk plucking a 16-year-old out of Formula 3 and plonking him straight into Formula 1.

This move has also provided a huge boost for Formula 1 more widely. Fans are flocking to circuits to see Verstappen race, and he surely has more potential than most to make F1 appeal to a new and younger audience.

"Spa was unbelievable," says Marko of the huge crowds that turned out for the Belgo-Dutch driver's 'home' race. "A friend of mine was in New York for the US Open tennis, and there was half a page in the New York Times about Max.

"I don't think any of the other drivers have made it into the New York Times. Maybe Hamilton..."

Who has already acknowledged Verstappen's talent as a "force to be reckoned with". When F1's reigning triple world champion is singing your praises in public, you must be doing something right.