Max Verstappen has not let fame or fortune change his personality one bit, according to Dr. Helmut Marko.
Marko is a retired Austrian racing driver now plying his trade as an advisor to the Red Bull team. He is also in charge of their world-class junior drivers’ program, which has given us the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz among others.
The veteran feels Max Verstappen has had to undergo a difficult transition to grow as an F1 driver and become the force he is now. Marko gave the Dutchman his first F1 outing during a Free Practice session at the 2014 Japanese GP weekend, where Verstappen impressed everyone at the age of 15. He then signed to drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2015.
Later, Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull team to replace Daniil Kyvat. He then won the 2016 F1 Spanish GP on his debut to become the youngest winner in F1 and has not looked back since.
In an interview with Formule1.nl in the Netherlands ahead of the 2022 F1 Belgian GP, Marko opened up about signing Verstappen as a teenager and watching him evolve into a world champion. The 79-year-old said:
“At 16 he signed his first Formula One contract. It was clear that he had to grow as a personality. I mean, he was still a kid and you still had the preponderance of Jos [Verstappen, Max’s father] at the time. But that actually developed in parallel: the more independent Max became, the more Jos withdrew. In the beginning, this was not always an easy process. Max had two technical briefings: first with the team and then with Jos… It’s clear that something like that can’t go on.”
The 24-year-old has now signed a massive contract with Red Bull that runs until the end of 2028 and has also raked in multiple high-profile sponsorship deals. The Austrian also touched on how Verstappen has not let his superstardom affect him even slightly, adding:
“He developed his own opinion relatively quickly and expressed himself very clearly in interviews. He is a Verstappen, isn’t he? If something doesn’t suit him, he’ll say so. Sometimes, like in Mexico with the stewards, that hasn’t always helped us. But that’s how we are. Max is now 24 and one of the best-earning athletes in the Netherlands, but that hasn’t changed him one bit. He lives his own life and has become calmer after his first world title.”
“The championship’s heading his way” – Max Verstappen on course to defend his world title, according to F1 pundit
Max Verstappen has all the ingredients needed to be the perfect racing driver and is on track to claim his second world title this year, as per Marc Priestley.
Priestley is a former F1 mechanic who was part of the McLaren team for a decade. He was also in the garage when Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden world title in 2008. The engineer left McLaren in 2009 and has since been an F1 pundit and presenter.
The Dutchman was in hot form in 2021 and managed to raise his level even further this year with eight wins in 13 races so far. He has also won both sprint rounds and has been on the podium 10 times in total.
According to Priestley, these impressive performances from Verstappen are down to him pairing his newfound maturity with his raw youthful approach to racing. Speaking on an episode of the BBC’s Checkered Flag podcast, the Briton said:
“I think racing drivers kind of hit their sweet spot when they are just on the brink of that youthful exuberance when they’ve got the ‘elbows out’ mentality. We know Max Verstappen’s had that in the early part of his career but now he’s got experience to go with it, he’s got a bit of maturity to go with it. That sweet spot comes right in the middle and that’s where we find Max Verstappen. The championship’s heading his way, almost no doubt about that now, and he thoroughly deserves it.”
As we approach the 2022 F1 Belgian GP, Max Verstappen holds an 80-point lead over Charles Leclerc at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship standings. Should he win six more races this year, the 24-year-old will set a new record for most wins in a single campaign.
Coming soon!
