Searcy, AR (LP)— In 2014, Max was in his first ever season of racing cars jumping straight from karts into Euro Formula 3. He had so much natural talent that his lack of experience and age was basically meaningless, during the mid-portion of season he went on a ridiculous run of form winning six races in a row. At the point within Formula One Max Verstappen was looking forward with five different F1 teams looking to sign him onto their Junior Program which included Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault. He was also starting to show an exceptional gift for driving in the rain and it was one if his incredible wet weather performance which first caught the eye of a certain Helmut Marco says, “There was a race at Norris ring which is a tidy circuit in Nuremberg and in the wet he was around one and a half to two seconds per lap quicker than anybody else in the field and there was clear there is really something very, very special.” It was that run of six straight wins in Euro Formula 3, at the age of 16 it basically began a bidding war between teams to sign Max. In the end it came down to Mercedes and Red Bull and there were reports that in the lead up to the 2014 German Grand Prix that Max had met with Helmet Marco but had decided to sign with Mercedes, Helmet and Red Bull were losing Max and at the time this wasn’t a crazy decision, Mercedes had just stares their hybrid era dominance in 2014 and looked like the team for the future. Meanwhile, Red Bull was still being a top team they had countless other Red Bull Junior drivers that max would still have to fight against Formula 3 and Formula 2 for even a chance to get to Formula 1. Helmut Marco knew this but he also knew instinctively that Max wasn’t just a good young driver, he was generational with off the scale levels of natural ability and potential. He needed to make one last push to snatch Max from Toto’s and Mercedes as grasp by giving max the ultimate prize immediately a Formula One seat.

“We were taking about Formula 2 or GP2 what it was at this time or GP3 and I got the opinion we don’t need all that so I could in the morning yours and then yours forget everything, we do from,” said Helmut Marco. However Max managed to achieve at such a young age but Max wasn’t exactly welcomed into F1 with open arms. Two time world champion Mika Hakkinen said, “It ‘s too young because in F1, the risk is high in F1 you don’t go to learn, you have to be ready. F1 doesn’t allow you to do too much learning.” Max Verstappen was also unique in the fact that his debut Forced the FIA to change their rules on granting young and inexperienced drivers a super license so that they can actually race in Formula One. From 2016 the FIA made it mandatory for driver to be at least 18 years of age and they also introduced the super license point system which giver drivers points of the back of what they achieved in Junior Formula. What this meant is that unless the FIA changed their ruling at some point in the future. Max Verstappen might stay as the youngest F1 driver for a very, very long time if not forever. Max Verstappen would make his F1 debut in the Toro Rosso team which of course is designed to give promising Red Bull Juniors a chance.

In the Singapore Grand Prix, Max started a lap down on the rest of the field because his car broke down on the formation lap an early safety car rescued his race. However, as he was allowed to unlap himself and catch up to the rest of the pack and from here he produced a sensational comeback drive overtaking his way through the field and working his way up with a good strategy to get back into the points. However, this is where things got controversial. Max was given a team order later on in the race to hand his position over to Carols Sainz so that he could try and attack the car ahead. Max went against a direct team order refusing to give the place up to Sainz and telling the team an emphatic no over the radio, in the end Max would bring the car home in P8 after being a lap down but it was a big statement in his rivalry with Sainz and an even bigger statement that when he needed to. He would take the race into his own hands and not hand positions over that he felt he earned say what you want about defying a direct team order it was selfish. But it showed yet another sign that he had the speed and tough mentality to be a World Champion, those were the races both good and bad that made Verstappen rookie season but the thing really made Verstappen so unforgettable it wasn’t the results or the racers or the numbers. It was the race craft that he showed it was quite apt that he had raced karts just two years earlier because that’s the sort of natural race craft that you learn when karting there were so many highlights of not just great moved not just overtakes where he was late on the brakes but overtakes where he had to show just how high his racing IQ was. In Monaco overtaking Maldonado successfully into Turn 1 when no tries to overtake in the same race following Seb who was a leader through blue flags and overtaking the likes of Bottas, then the moves that needed him to have incredible confidence on the brakes like the outrageous drive.

Max was overtaking drivers for fun and which coming into the season at 17 all anyone could talk about his age coming out of his season all anyone could talk about was his driving there was also an amazing irony to max and the way F1 and the FIA perceived him before the season started there was nothing but concern as the FIA couldn’t work fast enough to implement new rules to make sure that a driver like Max at 17 years old could never happen again, but then by the end of the year they could give him enough praise as he won three different FIA awards for action of the year personality of the year and of course the “Rookie of the Year” award as well now that’s hypocrisy as it’s finest. the last impression of Max from this era will always be his meteoric rise in 2013, he was racing Karts in 2014 he was racing cars for the very settling the world of F1. Max Verstappen  had so much pressure on his shoulders so many people waiting for his shoulders so many people waiting for him to fail and he stood up and proved all of them wrong he delivered on the trust that Red Bull and Helmut Marco showed in him he redefined what a 17 year-old could do in pinnacle of Motorsports and most impressively he did all of it without being old enough to have a driving license.

Recently, Max took another win in the Spanish Grand Prix. During the race Max was having some issues with car which the DRS would not open willing going to the straights on lap 13. Charles Leclerc was retied from the race due to losing power in his F1 car while he was leading the entire race. “NO, NO, NO,” ” What happen,” said Charles Leclerc on the team radio while the car was slowing down. At the end of the race team ordered Perez to slow down and let Max take the lead of the race which Perez said, “That’s unfair, but ok.” Perez was upset after letting his teammate pass and this was opportunity to take the podium win. But the new driver George Russell take another podium after exchanging into a different team.