Heading off F1's next negative spin

Conventionally, PR is all about spinning positive angles and generating upbeat headlines.

Recently, Formula 1 has evolved a self-destructive brand of anti-PR that is not simply a merciful absence of spin, but instead an unerring ability to turn positives into negatives.

When you consider the number of legitimate negatives flying around, that is self-destructive in the extreme. But in an attempt to nip one such good-story-masquerading as bad in the bud, let's talk about Max Verstappen.

There's a very realistic possibility that 17-year-old Verstappen will become not only the youngest driver ever to start a world championship grand prix in Melbourne on Sunday, but also the most junior points scorer.

Verstappen's every move will be scrutinised, but his age is irrelevant © LAT

The Toro Rosso looks to be a decent car and the Dutch 17-year-old has acquitted himself extremely well during testing. And even if things don't go well this weekend, rest assured we won't have to wait long before he delivers a star turn.

And when he does, what should be the story of a rising star showing skills that mark him out as an emerging superstar will inevitably be hijacked by negativity.

Instead of celebrating Verstappen for his achievements, in some quarters this will likely be seen as a dire indictment of how 'easy' F1 is.

That would certainly be in keeping with the attitudes of those who have, rather than seeing Verstappen for the talented driver he is, have obsessed about his age.

Verstappen has a huge amount of ability and has earned his rapid promotion to Formula 1 for his achievements behind the wheel. Yes, it is an unusually fast graduation, but he has already proved himself equal to such large strides by excelling on jumping from karting straight into Formula 3. And you can make a strong case for that being harder than what he is doing this year.

If - or rather when - he has his first noticeable success, rather than focusing on a potentially extraordinary driver, there will be excessive focus on how badly it reflects on F1.

It has become the norm to complain about grand prix cars being too 'easy' to drive. And while you could argue that to be the case in physical terms, in technical terms it is nonsensical.

Yes, were you to jump into a 1985 Williams, you would require tremendous strength in the arms to drive it. But at the same time, the drivers are also subject to higher lateral g-force and greater braking loads than their predecessors were.

With power steering and ever-more refined cars, there's a need for different skill set. You can't monster a modern F1 car around a track in the same way as you did three decades ago.

F1 cars required a different skill set 30 years ago, but was it harder? © LAT

The need now is to keep the cars teetering on the very brink of the available grip. It doesn't look so spectacular but is every bit as challenging as hanging the rear out of a more compliant car of ages past.

The point isn't that things are better now, or were then, but things do change. And anyone who wants to claim that driving a modern F1 car is easy should have seen how visibly exhausted Daniil Kvyat was after last year's Brazilian Grand Prix, for example.

What we are also seeing is a motorsport world in which the professionalism of the categories below F1, including karting, ensure that drivers are better-prepared than they would have been 10, 20, 30 years ago. So when they jump into an F1 car, they are already well attuned to its demands.

Verstappen, of course, is still an outlier as the vast majority of drivers would not have the maturity to graduate to an F1 seat at such a young age. Then again, there have been plenty of cases of drivers who, for all their ability, have probably lacked the maturity to do so at 30...

There's an old adage in sport stating that if you are good enough, you are old enough. On that basis, Verstappen is certainly old enough

Usually it's invoked when the merits of a young player being selected for a national football team. And it is a very good rule to live by, one that some in Formula 1 have temporarily forgotten.

When Verstappen's seat was announced, there was predictably a huge amount of hand-wringing about how pitching a 17-year-old into F1 was a catastrophic idea and shouldn't be allowed.

This groundswell played a part in the modification of F1's superlicence rules, setting a minimum age of 18 for drivers from 2016 onwards.

While the philosophy underpinning the superlicence points system, which rewards drivers for their achievements in various categories, is correct even if there are areas where you could quibble with the exact implementation, the age restriction just seems churlish.

Yes, there are certain fundamental restrictions governing age for racing and nobody is arguing that 12-year-olds be thrown into grand prix cars just because they are very talented. But F1 is the pinnacle and this minimum age regulation seems to be grounded as much in spite as anything else.

Frankly, it seems that a lot of the criticism is knee-jerk, based upon the feeling that Verstappen hasn't paid his dues. This is a powerful sentiment, and one that is the enemy of those who would see a true meritocracy.

Verstappen handled the karting-to-F3 leap better than most would have © LAT

After all, if the achievement criteria are robust enough, there is no need for an age limit that would prevent a young driver, for example, winning a major F4 title, then European F3 at the ages of 15 and 16, from stepping into F1. At worst, the future impossibility of doing so at 17 could shatter a driver's career momentum.

Yes, there are always risks in fast-tracking, but those risks can only be assessed on a case-by-case basis, not a one-size-fits-all age rule.

So if Verstappen scores points this weekend, perhaps those who default to complaining about how terrible everything is should pause for thought.

In most sports, young superstars are celebrated. And while that in itself can sometimes go too far, overall it's a positive thing.

But, doubtless, once again F1 will find a way to turn this great story into another negative one.

Remember, there is a big difference between something being easy and it looking easy.

The latter is what elite sportspeople do regularly, and what makes us watch.