How Verstappen conquered his demons

Max Verstappen strides into the room oozing the self-confidence only those in total command of themselves and their surroundings can summon.

Yes, he will grant F1 Racing 45 minutes of his time on his busiest grand prix weekend of the season (Spa), and yes he will pose for photographs. But no, he won't roar like a lion for the purposes of our imagery: "I'm not into that..."

Fair enough. You can lead a horse to water... Or should that be a lion to his prey? Probably, because that's exactly why we're nestled within the VIP area of Red Bull's new (and supposedly self-cooling) wood-based Energy Station.

It's time to talk about how Max Verstappen has evolved - from super-fast but ill-tempered wild animal into something far cooler and more calculating. And, if you're a multiple world champion named Lewis Hamilton with a big target on your back, a predator to watch warily.

Max utilises the hashtag '#unleashthelion' and incorporates a lion logo within his race helmet design, but this is no mere glib social media strategy, mundane branding or simple nationalism at play (the lion is the national symbol of his native Netherlands). Max Verstappen has studied the lion, recognised the animal's enduring power and worked to embody its qualities.

He is F1's young lion, now unleashing himself on grand prix racing with a level of focus and controlled aggression that should terrify all who stand in his way.

"It had something to do of course with coming from Holland, but then also I think the lion itself is quite
 an impressive animal," Max says, relaxing into his seat as he explains why the lion embodies his emerging Formula 1 persona.

"It's a dominating force. Powerful, dominating - and 
I also found it very impressive to look at. I wanted to come up with my own version of it, so not just copy the lion's face but find a cool way with my logo of putting that inside the lion. Also, then the hashtag #unleashthelion - I think it all just came together really well.
 Not everyone, even being Dutch, uses that, but I think it describes me quite well in trying to dominate, trying to be powerful."

There exists a popular myth about lions being 'kings of the jungle' because they sit at the top of the food chain. They actually live on grasslands and in savannahs, which by nature are open and less densely populated by vegetation.

But the truth in the myth is the lion's enduring status as an apex predator, so it can loosely be called the king of the animal domain - if, as Max points out, "you take the humans out of it".

Verstappen is not yet the undisputed chief of F1's animal kingdom, but he already possesses that kind of pulling power with the championship's fanbase.

There's a growing 'orange army' populating grandstands at every race and Zandvoort's Dutch Grand Prix will return to F1 after a 25-year hiatus in 2020. Verstappen can put bums on seats in a way few others can.

"I'm the only Dutch driver, so I think that helps," he says. "Also we've never had it before that we're winning races. And the Dutch people are very supportive in general - they love Formula 1 and they like fast cars.

"Initially it was helped by the parents, who were at the time already fans of my dad [Jos]. They maybe pushed their children along and they became fans as well, like exactly what happened with me and my dad. What helps as well is we have a distinctive colour as a fanbase. Put orange on and you know you're Dutch - unless you're maybe a McLaren fan..."

Formula 1 lives by the law of nature, where only the strongest survive, so it's perhaps fitting Max carries the symbol of the lion with him, for here is a driver who lives by own rules and exists outside the norms of the F1 jungle.

He is increasingly asserting his dominance over the rest of the wildlife found within. He is a deadly predator and he is on the hunt. The ultimate target: to depose Lewis Hamilton from his throne as F1's current king.

This has always been the aim, ever since Verstappen first burst onto the scene with Toro Rosso in 2015, but for a while there seemed a very real danger his own impatience might thwart that ambition.

Max version 1.0 was the wild child who flouted F1's etiquette, defied its stewards and annoyed its established stars with aggressive and combative driving. He was amazing to watch but also utterly on the limit all the time. You got the sense he wanted it perhaps too much, that his eagerness sometimes clouded his judgement.

The mistakes mounted and we began to wonder if the flaw was ingrained, and thus destined to destroy him.

It certainly destroyed his chances of winning the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, where he crashed needlessly in final practice and effectively handed victory in F1's most prestigious race to Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. This followed several other high-profile errors and incidents over the first six races of that season.

But, 16 months on from that defining moment in this young lion's development, Verstappen has evolved into something else; something greater.

Max Verstappen 2.0 is a calmer, more controlled, more consistent operator, and thus a far more dangerous proposition for his quarry to face.

"I would say Monaco was definitely the lower point," Max concedes. "Before that there were a few unfortunate situations where it's like 50/50, you know - you get away with it or it turns out badly, and they all just turned out badly for me. We were in this sort of negative spiral and I definitely hit the bottom in Monaco.

"From there onwards... I always said to myself, the speed is there and that's the most important thing. I was always quick even in those troubled races, but for me it felt like I took a step back and I actually moved forward in terms of pure pace as well, but also definitely in terms of consistency."

This has been a major part of the Verstappen evolution, realising he doesn't need to be quickest in every session, quicker each lap, or to go for every gap that appears.

He is driving now like he doesn't need to prove himself.

The result: a sublime run of 21 consecutive top-five finishes between last year's Hungarian Grand Prix and this year's Belgian one. Only Lewis Hamilton's 22-race run between the 2018 British GP and this year's German GP eclipses that.

It's just one measure of the extraordinary level Verstappen has reached while battling the unreliable machinery of 2018 and an enduring lack of engine power compared with Mercedes and Ferrari. It's also a clear indicator he has become more measured in his own approach, no longer trying to win every race at the first corner.

"Yeah, not wanting it that much, just easing yourself off a little bit," he agrees. "My dad always told me in go-karting, even when I think I'm not going fast enough I'm still fast enough. I guess I just wanted it... I was too eager. Just calming things a bit made it better."

Red Bull feels the nadir of Monaco snapped Max out of his previous gung-ho mindset, forcing him to face facts. For the first time in his F1 career, Verstappen had to wrestle with the realisation he and he alone was to blame for throwing away a clear victory shot.

With nowhere left to hide, Max had to react differently to this disappointment. As Red Bull team boss Christian Horner explains, Verstappen turned up for the next race in Canada without his usual family entourage in tow, and "from that point on has driven phenomenally well".

"We just spoke to him about every move not needing to be a dramatic one," Horner explains, "and I think just putting a bit more measure into his performance... the only person who could work that out is Max. He's the one driving the car.

"I think that Monaco weekend particularly hurt him. You could see it pained him a lot because he knew it's not often you get a car that good around the streets of Monaco and he knew he missed that opportunity. I think that was the catalyst that got him to think 'OK, right, I need to perhaps wind it in a bit'. That, combined with his experience - growing, maturing as a young man - everything from that point started to come together for him."

Verstappen appears to have left behind the 'me and my dad against the world' modus operandi that defined his early career. He clearly sees he is now part of something bigger than himself - a leading part in fact - no doubt helped by Daniel Ricciardo's recent departure to Renault.

"Of course when you get into the team initially you have to establish yourself and show that you're a force to be reckoned with," Max says. "Of course over time I learned more and I think definitely last year Daniel was struggling more beside me. I think he could see that in terms of results from after the first six races, where we were definitely picking it up.

"Then of course Daniel left... Even with Pierre [Gasly] still we've had equal chances. Of course, maybe they listened to me a bit more initially when he was new into the team, with the direction on the car, because I knew the environment a bit more. I think that's normal. But, as soon as you perform and you're quick there's no reason to not listen to you."

The team goes wherever the performance is...

"Well, at the end of the day, yes," he adds, "so... yeah, I think it's a very natural thing to do - in every sport, not only Formula 1. As soon as you perform and you're quick they can't go around you. Now, this year I feel very comfortable. I know the guys really well. And of course, myself I'm getting more and more experience, so everything just clicked even better. For sure then the [overall] performance steps up as well."

Horner feels the departure of Ricciardo naturally allowed Verstappen to emerge from the shadow of his more experienced team-mate.

"Daniel is such a big character, Max was a little bit like the younger brother - a puppy-like approach," Horner explains.

"When Daniel left the team Max really stepped up into this position of responsibility. Again, I felt he just matured a further step and took on that mantle with responsibility and strong leadership from within the cockpit."

Lions live in prides, so naturally the community around them is key to their flourishing.

Regardless of what else has been happening off-track, perhaps the single biggest thing that's helped elevate Verstappen's level of performance this season is the switch from Renault to Honda propulsion.

Endless frustration at the over-promise and under-delivery of the Renault engine programme felt by all at Red Bull is now gone, replaced by trust in basic competence and resources - and a feeling that, even though Honda also has room for improvement relative to Ferrari and Mercedes, the engine is much better built for the fight.

"Max got hugely frustrated with Renault and Renault management," says Horner, who feels Verstappen has become "the most in-form driver currently in the sport" for the level he's reached in what is clearly not the best car/engine package of 2019.

"He just didn't feel they were listening to his concerns on driveability; reliability was frustrating for him. In the end, he lost faith in what he was being told.

"With Honda, he went to the factory, saw the size of commitment going on behind the scenes, he felt the engineers were hanging on his every word, and he saw that desire to succeed. He very much bought into the programme - [that] this is the right step to try to get ourselves into a championship-contending position."

There is a sense the Red Bull-Honda combination has calmed Max further. He no longer seems possessed of the need to overdrive to make up for deficiencies in car performance.

There have certainly been none of the expletive-ridden radio rants such as we heard in Hungary last year, incidentally the last time Max retired from a race owing to engine failure.

"It's three years of frustration coming out in that final year, because there were always so many things promised, you know," he says, becoming animated. "Like 'don't worry, we'll get there'. I'm all for that - we'll get there - and I'm happy to work hard for it, but every year we just ended up in the same situation, with retirements and not having the power.

"At one point it's just enough. OK, I was very angry over the radio in Hungary, but the things you saw from the media was maybe only 10% of what was actually happening, and you can't say everything because then you really are in a war, so... but I know, and at one point when it happens again in the race you are cooking! I know everybody is trying their very best but it's not enough, clearly.

"When they [Red Bull] made the decision to swap to Honda, already I'd been to the factory in Sakura. I knew they were capable of a lot of things; there was a lot of capacity at the factory. Once we started working together you could see straightaway there were no limits - it was just flat out.

"They knew they were down on power, they knew they weren't reliable, but I think they had a great year with Toro Rosso [in 2018] in terms of understanding, and how to get the engine on a better path, and straightaway when we started working in the beginning of the year, we fired up the engine the first time [and] there were already two or three spare engines ready to go - which is a night-and-day difference to what we were experiencing before.

"At the winter testing we didn't have that many problems at all. We had so many spare parts anyway to use if there was a problem. They [Renault] were swapping one bit to the other engine; here [with Honda] it was just a full new engine with all parts on it. The way things are connected on the engine, the way it's integrated, was night-and-day different.

"So, I was really impressed, and also by the way they were working as a group," he continues. "It was really impressive to see the Japanese mentality - they are really focused on their job, they are not saying a lot but when they talk they are very straightforward and direct. I like that. I'm the same - I don't bullshit. I'm honest, I'm straightforward. When it's shit, it's shit and when it's good, it's good, and it should be like that."

Now the Max Verstappen and Red Bull-Honda house is getting itself in order, the focus must shift outwards - towards that ultimate goal of toppling Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari's capitulation at the start of 2019 has helped clear the way (although its recent resurgence has clouded the picture at the front of the grid again), and we've finally seen Max and Lewis go properly head-to-head (Monaco's go-slow tyre preservation battle doesn't really count).

Had Verstappen had a faster team-mate backing him up in Budapest, he would likely have won that contest. As it was, he was let down by Pierre Gasly, and reminded of the enduring performance deficit to Mercedes.

We understand Max has agreed to see out the final year of his current contract in 2020, but why such faith in an outfit that hasn't won a championship since 2013 and no longer necessarily stands apart on the aerodynamic front as it once did? Verstappen is frequently linked with a switch to Mercedes, which almost beat Red Bull to his signature in 2014.

Surely that's the best place for him to be right now, taking on F1's current king head-to-head on his own turf?

"Well, of course it's the first year with Honda and I think there's a lot more potential to be reached there," Max counters. "Mercedes, they're not stupid, and you can clearly see over the years how they've been performing. It's very hard to beat, but I believe the team can do it."

And the aero deficit?

"We're looking into that and understanding how we can do things better in that area," he adds. "That has been Red Bull's strength even when they became world champions - they never really started the season dominant, it was always throughout the season they became dominant. But now we're a bit too far off, so we will of course look into that for the future, so that doesn't happen again."

You get the sense it's probably next year or never for this alliance, that Red Bull-Honda must deliver the goods in 2020 or F1's young lion will seek pastures new. No disrespect to Red Bull, but how great it would be for F1 to have Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen tearing lumps out of each other in identical cars...

"Well, I'm very happy at the moment where I am because I think it's a very exciting project," Max says. "Everybody is looking in the same direction, everybody wants the same thing - everybody wants to win, everybody in the team are winners. You can feel that mentality is there. And, like I said, there are no real limits so hopefully we will be there next year. I think the team is definitely coming on very strong, and with the help from Honda hopefully we can close that gap."

What a tantalising prospect for 2020 should Red Bull-Honda take that final step. Then F1's lion will be fully unleashed.