Is Verstappen really ready for F1?

How young is too young to be a Formula 1 driver? Every time a new teenager joins the grid there is outcry from those F1 fans who feel the sport should be reserved for men and not boys (or women and not girls!).

Max Verstappen has been dealing with this righteous indignation ever since Red Bull signed the then-16-year-old single-seater rookie and granted him an almost instantaneous promotion to F1 last summer. Many feel a 17-year-old (his birthday is in September) who cannot yet drive on the road legally has no place racing at the top level of motorsport. Governing body the FIA seems to retrospectively agree, having since decided to change F1's superlicence rules for 2016 - to prevent another Verstappen breaking through.

The critics (among whose rank include ex-Red Bull F1 racer Mark Webber) feel Verstappen's arrival in F1 at such a tender age - and with so little racing experience - undermines the sport. But surely ability counts for more? Pele is now widely regarded as one of the greatest professional footballers who ever lived. He was just 17 when his goals helped Brazil lift the 1958 World Cup.

Success came quickly in Formula 3 as a car racing rookie © LAT

Fears that Verstappen won't be able to cut it at the top level after just a single season in European Formula 3 (itself arguably the most fiercely competitive junior single-seater series on the planet right now) - or worse that he will pose a danger to his new rivals because of his relative inexperience - are grossly misplaced.

He already has 48 starts in single-seater racing under his belt (thanks to taking part in Ferrari's pre-season Florida Winter Series ahead of his F3 campaign) - that's more than both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso amassed before they graduated to F1...

Similar criticism was levelled at Red Bull when it promoted the then-19-year-old GP3 champion Daniil Kvyat to F1. Such was his seamless progress as a rookie in 2014, this year the Russian will replace four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull A-Team. Verstappen's own assured performances during three Friday practice runs at last year's Japanese, US and Brazilian Grands Prix should also reassure those with doubting minds.

Still not convinced? Well, how about some testimony from a respected team boss who has witnessed Verstappen's skills first hand. Trevor Carlin's eponymous outfit has run many of the world's best drivers on their way through the junior ranks of the sport - including a certain ex-Red Bull four-time world champion. Carlin believes Verstappen has everything it takes to succeed at the highest level.

"He's been bred to be a Formula 1 driver," Carlin told AUTOSPORT after Red Bull announced Verstappen's deal. "He may be a teenager, but he's got probably 12 or 13 years of racing experience at the top level. He's a once-in-a-generation talent."

The "12 or 13 years of racing experience at the top level" Carlin mentions are in reference to Verstappen's extensive karting background. The Dutchman is a World and European karting champion, and it is vital not to underestimate the value of that pedigree. Many questioned his father Jos for deciding to pluck his son out of karts and place him straight into F3 in 2014, but Verstappen Jr silenced the doubters by winning races and challenging for the title with an un-fancied team.

Verstappen Jr himself argues the jump from karting to F3 was more difficult to make than that from F3 to F1 - because of the need to adopt a completely different driving style for cars - and says his top-level karting background is the main reason he feels ready to take on the top tier of single-seater racing so soon in his career.

"Karting is really competitive," he tells AUTOSPORT. "Seven days a week you are busy working on it, trying to improve the engines on the dyno. I had so much experience before I even got into a racing car, because of my dad and how he explained everything so well, so I think for me it's a different story than another 17-year-old."

Father Jos was thrown into the F1 deep-end with Benetton in 1994 © LAT

Mention of his father Jos is quite apt, for readers of a certain age will well remember the story of Verstappen Sr - how he burst onto the scene in a test for Arrows in 1993, then became Michael Schumacher's Benetton team-mate in 1994 after being initially signed as test driver, before sliding down the grid into obscurity.

Jos admits now that his own career was "too much, too soon". Many will argue the same is true of Max, but he feels the expertise of Red Bull and Toro Rosso with young drivers will save him from a fate worse than his father's.

"I think I'm in a good environment here," he says of Toro Rosso. "It's more of a junior team so they are really there to prepare young drivers. I think it's much better than how my dad started."

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost already has no doubts his new charge can make the grade in Formula 1. Again, Tost points to that karting pedigree. "I don't see any risk with this driver because he won everything in karting," Tost argues. "He came into Formula 3 and he immediately was a frontrunner. He is 17 on a piece of paper, but if you talk to him, if you look how he is driving a car, he is much more mature, and therefore I am not worried.

"It's not the age, it's the performance the driver shows. I know a lot of drivers who are 24 but they are simply too slow to do F1. And there are very young drivers who are very fast and will show good performance, and I'm convinced Max will do this if we provide him with a proper car."

The FIA's 2016 rule-change means Verstappen may permanently remain the youngest driver to start a grand prix when the 2015 grid forms up for the first time in Australia in March. Those lining up alongside him will have no worries about his competence. Those watching shouldn't either. In this context, age is merely a number. Just ask Pele...