How Verstappen recovered from rock bottom

Max Verstappen heads to this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix as the Formula 1 driver with perhaps the best (although slim) chance of ending Mercedes' clean sweep of 2019 so far. It's almost hard to believe that 12 months ago many were questioning whether he really had what it took to be up there with F1's greatest.

Sure, everyone had been made aware of Verstappen's combination of dazzling speed, aggressive overtaking and defensive style, all of which made him such a great racer. But his unnecessary final practice crash in Monaco last year - which put him out of qualifying and handed team-mate Daniel Ricciardo an open goal to give Red Bull the win on a weekend it clearly had the best package - prompted a lot of questions about his temperament.

After a run of incidents and accidents at the start of 2018, Verstappen's moment of Monaco madness - in which he pushed too hard when he didn't have to - left some wondering if he would ever attain the maturity needed to know when to back down. After all, Verstappen's brilliance was that he was supposed to operate at 100% all the time.

Even Red Bull's chiefs accepted that something had to give - Verstappen was going to have to shake off his youthful exuberance if he was going to become an even better driver.

As Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said at the time: "That's exactly what he needs to learn - [that] you won't win a championship just because you're ahead in every practice session. On the other hand, we're glad he's so unruly. It's easier to get him [to calm] down than to build a not so fast or aggressive driver in that direction."

Verstappen approaches the 2019 Monaco event as a very different person, and with a vastly different reputation. The speed is still there; the moments of brilliance remain. But he has added a new level of maturity and consistency to his arsenal. It's no longer about being fastest in every session, it's about achieving the best result possible by the end of a race. That's why he is sitting pretty in third place in the drivers' championship this year.

Part of Verstappen's change came thanks to the 2018 Monaco wake-up call; he realised that perhaps he needed to tone things down a bit on track in the sessions that didn't matter.

Some of it, too, is because there's more responsibility on his shoulders this year. With Ricciardo gone at the end of 2018 - some say he ran away to Renault specifically to escape the challenge of his then Red Bull team-mate - and the inexperienced Pierre Gasly brought in, it is clear there is more reliance on Verstappen to lead Red Bull.

But Verstappen is adamant that he is not suddenly working harder or offering his opinion any more than he had in the past.

"No, I think that would be wrong, because then I would [have been] doing something bad last year and the year before," he says. "I was always giving feedback the way I thought it had to be done, and I'm doing the same. Maybe they're listening to me a bit more..."

So the extra responsibility has come subconsciously. It's something that probably stems from his collision with Ricciardo in Baku last year, where the clear message from Red Bull was about how the drivers had let down the hundreds of staff members working tirelessly for the team.

"Since Monaco last year, he's selected another gear and his performance has been phenomenal" Christian Horner

That made Verstappen realise that when a race is wrecked at the first corner, or even if there is a practice crash, it's not just his own hopes dashed, it's those of everyone at Red Bull's base who have worked so hard to deliver the best possible car.

His father Jos recently suggested that it is on opening laps in particular where we've seen a different Verstappen in 2019. He cited Baku as a clear example of his son's new approach.

After losing fourth place to a fast-starting Sergio Perez just after Turn 1 in Azerbaijan, Verstappen wasn't tempted to try to squeeze the Racing Point driver on the outside of Turn 2 in a desperate bid to regain his spot. Instead, he gave his rival just enough space to allow them both to live to fight another day. It is doubtful that the 2018-spec Verstappen would have done the same thing.

Displaying such maturity early in races - considering how Verstappen sometimes used to get tangled up in first corner messes - is something that his team boss Christian Horner has also spotted.

"Since Monaco last year, he selected another gear and his performance has been phenomenal and he's extracted every ounce of performance out of the car," says Horner. "He races so strongly [now].

"It was a really intelligent first couple of corners [in Spain] and obviously a very brave pass on Sebastian [Vettel] around the outside of Turn 3. He's really showing his maturity and composure, and his consistency in the car."

Verstappen's maturity out of the car has also been helped, reckons Marko, by a bit of 'cord cutting' from his father. Jos, along with Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen, missed the Canadian race that followed the events in Monaco last year. Some viewed their absence as a response to Verstappen underperforming there, but the reality was that it had been a long-planned move that would allow the youngster to do more races alone after becoming an adult.

Marko reckons that Max's father taking a step back has helped; both in increasing Verstappen's maturity but also by easing the pressure a little at race weekends.

"You shouldn't overestimate the need to cut the cord from his environment," says Marko. "Jos is not at every race anyway. Jos got married again and had another child. He also took a step back. And he understands that Max no longer needs him to the extent it was necessary before. That's an overall development.

"I remember Max sat with me in Graz for the first time at the age of 15. We continuously worked with him. There were other things as well. For example: [his] race engineer was pretty strict with him. But it's not like he delivered a performance immediately only because Jos wasn't there. This incredible maturity and determination is still an exception. But the boy must have been with his father day and night for 10 years. They travelled the world with a kart and a van.

"It was clear that there would have to be a cutting of the cord at some point. We have already seen that he is more on his own now and doesn't get any additional pressure, no counter-productive pressure."

All these factors coming together have produced a step change in Verstappen, which has made him better. His former F1 boss at Toro Rosso, Franz Tost, reckons the 2019-spec Verstappen is finally ready to gun for the ultimate prize if he has a good enough car.

"Max was with us once and has gone through a learning process, even at Red Bull," says Tost. "He realised that he doesn't always have to go through the wall with his head. And now he's reached a level where he'll compete for victories and the world championship if everything comes together.

"He also showed super overtaking manoeuvres, where you didn't get the impression that it was on a knife-edge. He really now has this maturity that makes it possible for a driver to compete for a world championship."