Red Bull Motorsports
F1
Max Verstappen: what I learned in F3
Toro Rosso’s 17-year-old sensation Max Verstappen talks us through his mighty debut season in the European F3 championship.
Max Verstappen wrapped up a brilliant first (and last!) season in the European F3 championship by taking a win, a fifth-place and a sixth-place at Hockenheim last weekend to secure third in the championship.
Considering that the 17-year-old former karting sensation had his first test of a car with slicks and wings last October and is now set to move up to F1 to fill Daniil Kvyat’s vacant seat at Toro Rosso for 2015, that’s a pretty awesome 12 months by anyone’s standards.
RedBull.com spoke to F1’s game-changing wonderkid to see what his year in Formula Three had taught him.
Learn more about the Dutch driver by listening to the Becoming Max Verstappen episode of the Beyond the Ordinary podcast.
Slicks and wings… gives you wings!
Max first tested a single-seater – a Formula Renault 2.0 – at the Pembrey Circuit in Wales in August 2013 before testing an F3 car in December. And it didn’t take the then 16-year-old long to get the hang of things.
“Of course before you jump in the car you don’t know what to expect,” says Max. “But after I did a few laps, I started to feel comfortable. You start to feel the limits a bit. It’s completely different to go karts. I mean, the braking pedal, the throttle application, how you sit in the car, the view. That was the main difference really. But from the beginning we were quite fast, so I adapted quite well.”
Max in action at Imola
© Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
Straight on the pace
Despite not finishing his first race at Silverstone, Max went on to claim a fifth place in race two and a second in race three at his first ever European F3 weekend. Not bad, rook.
“I was relaxed [at Silverstone]," Max adds. "No big problems. I knew [my rivals] had more experience than me, but I was there to learn so I felt quite comfortable.”
Mental strength? Give me a break!
Following news of Max’s promotion to Toro Rosso midway through the season, questions were asked about whether a 17-year-old could handle the mental pressures of competing in F1. If everyone else was worried, Max certainly wasn’t…
“I have no problems at all with [mental strength]! I’m really relaxed and I don’t want to think about mental stress, or how strong you are mentally because, to be honest, I find it a bit bullshit,” he says.
Max has no problems with mental strength
© Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
The low point…
It hasn’t all been sunshine and lollipops during Max’s first F3 season. Despite taking 10 wins, the most of any driver in the championship, there have been mistakes. Max reckons his biggest one was his first-lap crash in race one at Hockenheim back in May.
“I crashed in the hairpin. I braked too late, locked up and just hit the side of another car," Max says. "But I don’t think about what happened before, because you get more experience and you have more feeling about where to brake and what you have to do in the first few laps – you can’t brake as late as you can do in the later laps. So you have to be more patient. In go karts, if you touch a bit, nothing bad happens, but [in F3] you’ll bend something or the wing is off. So that was one of my big learning moments.”
The high point…
Easy.
“I think winning six times in a row [at Spa-Francorchamps and the Norisring]. That was the best moment.”
The 17-year-old has taken 10 wins this season
© Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
Next stop: Macau…
Now Max wants to join the likes of Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard by winning the famous Macau Grand Prix in November. Having already won the Zandvoort Masters this year, as his father Jos did in 1993, Max now wants to do the double.
He says: “Next week I will be in the simulator at Red Bull to do some Macau preparation. I think it’s important to have a little feel of the track before you go out. I won the Masters, so you try to win Macau as well."
Check out Max Verstappen's official website here.
