Horner: It was Marko's idea to offer 15-year-old Max a F1 drive

The Dutchman's meteoric rise from karting, through to Formula 3 and then straight into F1 with Toro Rosso at the age of 17 is a well-told tale, but team boss Christian Horner adds further remarkable insight into this incredible journey.

In an interview with the official F1 website, Horner recalled, “Max is unique. Helmut said he had a crazy idea. He said: I think if we really want to get him, I think we have to offer him a seat in Toro Rosso next year. Bearing in mind Max was 15 at the time, was quite punchy.

"But I totally agreed with him and felt he would be capable of doing it. There were a lot of people who doubted he would be able to make the big jump to F1. But he was a driver of such ability; there was just something unique about him. It was a straightforward thing to do.”

It is well known that his father, former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, was instrumental in his son's junior career, prepping Max's karts to works standards, but Horner also points to the Dutchman's Belgian mother Sophie Kumpen as a vital part of the prodigy's DNA.

“I knew his mother better because I raced against her. From 1989, we raced in the junior world championships together. She was very talented.

"She was beating the likes of Kevin Magnussen’s father Jan, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli. She was going against big names and beating them. She was in the top 10 in the world at that point," recalled Horner himself a F3000 driver at the time.

Prior to Verstappen signing up to the Red Bull programme, they had kept an eye on his karting exploits, and only halfway through the 2014 F3 season did the two parties conclude a deal which eventually resulted in Verstappen making his debut six months later at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, at the age of 17 years and 166 days, to become the youngest driver to compete in Formula 1.

A myriad of records fell thereafter including, at 18, becoming the youngest-ever winner of a Grand Prix, when he triumphed in Spain on his debut for the senior team, after he was promoted to replace demoted Daniil Kvyat.

That race in Barcelona alone is the stuff of legend as Horner recalled, “There were no nerves. He has inner confidence in himself and his own ability. He never looked out of his depth at Toro Rosso. We knew he was ready."

"Then he had a fairytale debut – he won, having never tested the car. He just jumped in the car and was straight on Daniel’s pace."

Since then Verstappen has won five more times, but the reality is that for a number of reasons (Renault PU for example) Red Bull have not given him a car capable of regularly challenging pacesetters Mercedes and Ferrari for that matter.

Their successes in this hybrid era have largely been due to occasional dollops of luck and Verstappen making up the difference.

Horner continued, “In Austria last year, everyone’s tyres were on a knife edge and he managed to make those tyres last an incredible amount of time to take victory at the Red Bull Ring, which was an emotional moment for the whole team, to win at home. His ability to manage tyres is impressive.”

With the precocious talent Verstappen has, and like most of the very greats of our sport, invariably the youngster has his quirks and foibles, none less than a notorious temper and an all or nothing attitude that has his rivals worried.

But the Red Bull team chief sees the upside of Verstappen's fiery temperament, recollecting last year's Brazilian Grand Prix when lapped Esteban Ocon punted the #33 car from the lead.

After the incident, during the drivers' weigh-in area, the pair had a now-famous tete-a-tete that launched a million headlines.

“With that incident, you see that passion and desire within him – I think people relate to that. I remember after that race, David Beckham sent me a message and said: I really like the attitude of your driver. Max ignites that kind of support," explained Horner.

Consider this:

Thus the word 'phenomenon' is not hype or Red Bull spin, it's the reality that F1 has a mega-star in the mould of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Seena, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso."

“He’s getting stronger and stronger and he’s still so young,” Horner pointed out. “He’s only scratching at the surface of what I think he’s ultimately capable of. As he gets more experience, you can see already he’s incredibly rounded."

"There’s a couple of stand-out guys for the future, which is very much Verstappen and [Charles] Leclerc. They are going to be the two dominant guys of the next decade.”

In other words: we all - fans, teams, drivers - better get used to the fact that Max is here for the long term, at the sharp-end but at the same time, we are sure to be well and truly entertained by a driver who has already made a huge mark on our sport in a very short spell of time.

Verstappen is a legend in the making which we have the privilege of witnessing, whether you like him or not - facts are facts, and the records he has already set don't lie. Embrace what lies ahead because he is as good as it gets.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/06/28/verstappen-crashes-happen-but-maybe-its-a-good-thing/