Max Verstappen managed to win the System 1 title final yr when he was simply 24 years outdated. He dethroned Lewis Hamilton, standing out for his driving abilities and cheekiness on the monitor.
Though for a lot of, 2021 was the yr of Max‘s emergence, the reality is that there have been already individuals who had accompanied him alongside the way in which and who knew of his expertise.
That is the case of Franz Tost, the AlphaTauri group boss who thinks Verstappen can nonetheless get even higher within the coming seasons.
“I met Max for the primary time along with his father on the Nurburgring, when he was driving karts on the time,” Tost instructed F1-Insider.
“The following time was on the Norisring in System 3. Within the rain, he drove in a league of his personal, as if he was the one one who had found a dry line. He instantly jogged my memory of Michael Schumacher.
“You may see what a mega expertise Max was. In any case, we took some criticism once we entrusted him with Toro Rosso on the age of 17, somebody who did not also have a driving licence.
“He additionally did his first coaching session at Suzuka, one of the crucial tough circuits of all. However Max did all of it with aplomb.
“He by no means had any issues with the good pace of a System 1 automotive, as he all the time had every part underneath management proper from the beginning.”
Max Verstappen | Luca Bruno
Tost went on to specific his perception that Verstappen has extra to present regardless of already being one of many most interesting F1 drivers.
“In his first races he was generally a bit of too aggressive,” Tost added.
“That generally led to a crash, for instance in Monaco with Romain Grosjean.
“Right now he’s driving at a particularly excessive degree. Nonetheless, we’ve not seen the utmost from him but.
“Solely Charles Leclerc can come shut. Lewis Hamilton has already suffered an excessive amount of from the ravages of time.”