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Max Verstappen: The Next Big Investment

2015 saw the return two familiar name in the motorsports. Verstappen and Sainz. The name Verstappen is
familiar to F1 paddock and Sainz is to WRC. Jos Verstappen is one of the most successful drive of Dutch
Formula One driver who was also a team mate of Michael Schumacher in 1994 during his Benetton days.
In his 9 years of F1 career he competed in 107 grand prix and achieved ing 2 podium finishes. He retired
from F1 in 2003 and his last team waswhile being part of team Minardi.
After 2003 season, the name Verstappen was absent in the F1 result sheet for quite a long time. Then in
2014 Red Bull announced the signing of Max Verstappen the son of Jos Verstappen as Red Bull Junior
Team driver. By this time we were a bit convinced that Max is a young gun who soon might step in to F1.
Just after six days of joining the Red Bull Junior Team, Red Bull announced that Max Verstappen towill
race in F1 2015 season with Red Bulls feeder team Toro Rosso alongside Carlos Sainz Jr. (Son of WRC
Legend Carlos Sainz). This really came as a shocking news to F1 fans and Motorsports journalist and
other personnel. Max was just 17 years old that time with very few racing experience ,. Wwhich meant he
wasnt even legal enough to get a driving license in Netherlands at that time. If we talk about hiscompare
short resume on motorsports career before joining F1, then there is just was one current F1 driver who
had similar situation. Kimi Raikkonen, One time world champion had similar situation like Max
Verstappen who had very few motorsports experience before joining F1. Max Verstappen first F1
experience came in 2014 Japaneses Grand Prix First Free Practice session. That earned him a place in the
history book of F1, for becoming the youngest driver to take part in a grand prix weekend at the age of 17
years old. Although the couldnt run for the whole session because of a mechanical issue with his Toro
Rosso car, but he already made an immediate impact in F1 by achieving 12 th fastest time for the session
which was 0.443s shy off regular Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat. After experiencing his first F1 session,
Max Verstappen said to the media, Age is just a number. Critics never left the back of Max. During a
Red Bulls demo run at Rotterdam at the end of 2014, Max Verstappen crashed his Red Bull F1 car in the
demo run which left the critics to raise questions on the ability of Max Verstappen. Max had to work extra
hours hard during the 2015 winter testing to put more laps in his experience in order to get the super
license that is required to race in F1.
Max Verstappen didnt take long to prove his critics wrong. At Melbourne, the first grand prix of the
season, Max suffered a mechanical failure and didnt finish the race. But if there wasnt the interruption I
am pretty sure he would have had a brilliant debut with Toro Rosso. His first stint was on the harder
compound tires and others were on the soft compound. Being with the harder option his laptimeslap times
were impressive and consistent. When he made the first pit stop for his second stint with soft tires, the
Renault engine powering his Toro Rosso gave up. If this failure didnt would not have occurred then he

would have been on softer compound and others around him would have been on harder compound which
would have given him a huge boost till the remaining part of the race.
nd

He scored his maiden


th

championship point the 2 race of 2015 season in Malaysian GP. He finished 7 in the race earning him
yet another place in the history book for becoming the youngest driver to score championship point. In
2015 on two occasions he came very close to podium finish, one in Hungarian GP and other in USA GP.,
o and onn both the occasions he finished 4th. Max Verstappen was the king of overtaking in 2015. He
successfully overtook 49 cars throughout the season. According to Pirelli (F1s sole tire suppler) 2015
season encountered 509 overtaking by all the competing drivers, which means Max Verstappen was
accountable for 10% of all the overtaking that took place in 2015. In Chinese GP, Max showed some
awesome overtaking. One of the highlight race according to mewhich I witnessed, was the 2015
Singapore GP where Max started the race a lap down from the whole grid and still finished within
championship points in 9th position. He demonstrated brilliant skill of overtaking in narrow street circuit
night. Throughout the season Max kept the F1 fans applauding brilliant overtakes and kept on improving
his skills and maturity. Moreover I would like to add two of his highlighted overtaking in 2015 that
convinced me to say that he is one of the greatest rookie I ever seen. First one in Belgium GP, his
overtaking on Felipe Nasr. He overtook Felipe Nasr at the famous Blanchimont corner form outside line.
If you are a regular F1 viewer or fan you already know that the overtaking at Blanchimont from the
outside line requires balls of titanium. I have been watching F1 since 2001, and cannot remember any one
overtaking at Blanchimont in that manner. The second one in Brazilian GP, he overtook Sergio Perez at
the famous Senna Esses of Interlagos.
End of 2015 season Max bagged 49 points and placed 12 th in the F1 Drivers Championship. If we want to
connect his brilliant debut season and his character, we can say that he has a racing pedigree. Earlier we
mentionedAs mentioned earlier that he is the son of ex-F1 driver Jos Verstappen (Jos The Boss). So Ifif
we look into his family background, then we can see that its not only his father but also his mother who
once belonged to the motorsports worldworld of motorsport. His mother used towho and competed in
Karting. Moreover Hhis uncle competed in endurance racing and is currently a Nascar Whelen Euro
Series Driver.
Now, lets talk about the title of this article. Why Max Verstappen will be a next big investment? As Max
already have proved his critics wrong and impressed the motorsports world immensely in his debut
season with Toro Rosso. In many occasion, I myself wished if he raced for one of the winning teams we
could have seen more of his talents. Although Max will continue with Toro Rosso for 2016 season,
despite that he already drew immense attention from top teams like Mercedes and Ferrari. Ferrari is clear
that they are looking for a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen for 2017. and Vettel already is in his stable

stage of his career. So, a young blood like Max has all that is is all required within the team by for Ferrari.
On the other hand Mercedes saw an ugly team mate battle in 2015. Talthough Lewis Hamilton won the
championship and Nico Rosberg finished 2 nd in the drivers championship. But However the mismatch
harmony was visible in several occasion in 2015. If this continues in 2016, then Mercedes might consider
a change of their drivers lineup in 2017. Talent like Max Verstappen wont come with cheap price tag. At
this moment Ferrari and Mercedes are capable of matching such bargain. Normally we see that Toro
Rosso drivers graduate into their senior team Red Bull which was the case for quadrapolequadrupole
champion Sebastian Vettel and Red Bulls current driver lineup. I assume, for Max Verstappen this wont
be the case as Red Bull will definitely face challenge from Ferrari and Mercedes. However Iit will be hard
for Red Bull to resist the challenges.
To end this article, all I want to say Max Verstappen, remember the name, you will cheer it and hear it a
lot about in the years to come.

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