Max Verstappen F1 deal won't make McLaren rush its young drivers

Verstappen, who will make his F1 race debut with Toro Rosso next year after just one season of car racing in the Formula 3 European Championship, is taking a different route to McLaren protege Nyck de Vries, who will graduate to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2015 after spending three seasons in Formula Renault 2.0.

Boullier acknowledged that Red Bull's approach is different to McLaren's, but he feels that the experience the team has with nurturing Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen to F1 race seats means there is no need to rush de Vries' progression.

"The Formula Renault 3.5 championship is the right step for Nyck," said Boullier.

"We know that Red Bull has chosen a different path for Max Verstappen.

"We think that Nyck will mature better by competing one season in World Series by Renault with the DAMS team [which took Magnussen to the FR3.5 title in 2013], then we'll see.

"We are talking about teenagers, so it is not easy to make predictions. Anything can happen.

"But McLaren has already had the experience with Hamilton and more recently with Magnussen."

Boullier added that he feels young drivers are becoming more professional at an earlier age now.

"More and more these guys get used very early to their work on the track, to testing, to discussing with the engineers and the mechanics," he said.

"But also they quickly get used to interacting with the press, with the sponsors, with social media.

"That's the way it is. We cannot go against the clock.

"We just need to set up programmes more able to form these new talents in a complete way."

For a full interview with McLaren F1 junior de Vries on his career so far and what's next, read this week's AUTOSPORT magazine