Max Verstappen managed to break the streak of a Mercedes team that had dominated F1 for seven consecutive years. After a last race that could not have been more dramatic and controversial, he managed to beat Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the drivers’ title in 2021.
The book “Formula Max” was recently published in the Netherlands, written by the journalists of the local edition of Motorsport.com. Its pages recall the moment when even before arriving in F1, the Mercedes academy of young talents was interested in Verstappen, but finally his father and his manager, Raymond Vermeulen , opted for Red Bull.
Helmut Marko explained what really allowed the Austrian team to take away the star of the future from the strongest team in the championship at the time and therefore the most attractive.
“Of course, we knew that Max’s entourage was also talking to Mercedes,” the Austrian told the book’s authors. “But with them you wouldn’t have gotten to Formula 1 so quickly.”
“They wouldn’t have dared to put a rookie behind the wheel so soon. And my plan was simple: sign a contract and immediately give him a seat in F1. In many ways, that was what allowed us to take him away from Mercedes. We were seeing that Max I was already prepared for the highest category of motorsport, and that’s how it was.”
“I would say that, in general, we are very different from Mercedes in the way we approach things. We are much closer to the idea of ‘no risk, no victory’.
Marko assured that Red Bull never hesitated to entrust its F1 car to a 17-year-old driver who had skipped some important steps, whose only experience after karting had been a Formula 3 season, in which Max did not even was able to win the title.
“We had no doubt that we would be criticized,” said the 78-year-old consultant. “But I’ll be honest: it was a calculated risk. Also, we gave Max the necessary number of tests within the rules in force at the time.”
“He made his debut in free practice at one of the toughest tracks on the calendar, Suzuka, and left very good feelings facing such a difficult task.”
“We were able to prepare him well for his rookie season. Of course, there is always a risk, because success in the lower categories never guarantees success in F1,” he added.
“In the course of conversations with Max, I immediately realized that one shouldn’t judge him by his age. He is way ahead in terms of development. And that applied both physically and psychologically: he was ready to F1. We never doubted our decision.”
His partner at Toro Rosso was Carlos Sainz, a more experienced driver having contested several lower single-seater categories, but when they both made it to Formula 1, Max immediately began to show that he had a level at least similar to his.
Speaking of Verstappen ‘s later progress, Marko said: “He has matured. The difference is that if he sees any kind of problem now, he stays as calm as possible.”
“Before, he could lose his temper and start screaming in the garage. Now he is very aware that this will not change anything and it will not help the engineers either. Therefore, he prefers to prepare for the next session and think about the best way to take advantage of his opportunities. Now he has clearly learned to deal with those things better, “concluded the Red Bull advisor.
