Max Verstappen in profile
Last Updated: 19/01/17 2:29pm
Max Verstappen is Formula 1's hottest young property.
In 2015, his debut year in the sport aged just 17, he became F1's youngest driver and points scorer. Then, in 2016, the Dutchman topped those feats by also becoming the youngest race victor after brilliantly winning on his debut for the senior Red Bull team at the Spanish GP.
Combined with a penchant for the spectacular - Verstappen has topped F1's overtaking charts in each of his first two seasons - and it's little wonder he has already been mentioned in the same breathe as some of the sport's most legendary names.
Does a first title challenge now await in 2017?
Red Bull, who beat Mercedes to the then-16-year-old's signature in 2014, have twice been criticised for their acceleration of Verstappen's career: first, for handing him a race seat with Toro Rosso before he had even driven an F1 car and then for promoting him to the senior team in place of Daniil Kvyat after the first four races of the 2016 season.
But Verstappen has proved the doubters wrong on both occasions. That breakthrough Barcelona victory and six other podium finishes in 2016 definitively shown he is the real deal.
Already surpassing the F1 achievements of his father Jos, who competed in 106 grands prix and finished on the podium twice, Verstappen Jnr has shown himself to be equally adept on track in defence or attack, with his uncompromising style not always winning him admirers among his peers.
But his swashbuckling approach has certainly earned a large fan following with the Belgian GP now unofficially adopted as the Dutchman's home race.
Teamed with the more experienced, but similarly highly-rated, Daniel Ricciardo once more in 2017, one of the year's most compelling themes will be to see which one of Red Bull's aces will emerge on top in a season in which the former champions are hoping to dislodge Mercedes from the head of F1's pack.
The F1 world cannot wait.
