Max Verstappen praised after starring on Monaco debut
Teenager second to Hamilton in P1 at end of his first ever practice session on the street track; Team-mate Sainz also impresses again
Friday 22 May 2015 16:41, UK
F1 team bosses have showered praise on Max Verstappen after the teenager starred on his debut around Monaco’s street circuit.
Having bypassed both Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2 on his stratospheric rise to F1 after just one season of single-seater racing, Verstappen had therefore not driven in the Principality before Thursday’s practice sessions.
However, not for the first time in his short F1 career, the 17-year-old made light of his inexperience and also made headlines by finishing an eye-catching second fastest to Lewis Hamilton in the opening session, with the difference between the Mercedes and Toro Rosso just one tenth of a second.
Verstappen, who was snapped up by Red Bull last summer before being given a seat at their junior Toro Rosso squad for 2015, impressed the team bosses at both of the company’s F1 outfits.
“It was super. For a guy who can’t rent a hire car yet it was enormously impressive,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.
Verstappen’s own team boss Franz Tost explained that it was the young Dutchman’s consistent improvement from the get-go in P1 that particularly caught his eye, before predicting that the teenager would soon score a top-five result.
“We all know that Max is a very, very highly-skilled driver,” the Austrian said.
“I was impressed how he achieved this really good time in P1. He went out in the morning and from run to run he improved his laptime without making any mistake. No locking [of the wheels], nothing. His car control and his feedback during the run was extraordinary.
“I am very happy he is in the team and I am convinced he will show some other great runs – hopefully qualifying and also in the race. I think we will have some success with him this year and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sooner or later in the first five.”
Although Verstappen, as F1’s youngest ever driver, grabbed all the attention in the build-up to the season, 20-year-old Carlos Sainz has also consistently impressed in the second Toro Rosso seat and finished in the top six in both practice sessions in Monaco.
Toto Wolff, the boss of world champions Mercedes, believes the rookies are thriving on the in-house rivalry.
“You can see in the right car, with the right team-mate – they push each other and they are two of the best two young boys out there – and clearly Max finishing P2 on a track he has never been to in these conditions is good,” Wolff said.
“But I wouldn’t underestimate Carlos’s performances either. It shows that if you have team-mates you compete on a similar level and push each other the rivalry is very good.”
Horner, who could theoretically work with one or both of the young drivers at the senior Red Bull team in future, added: “The two Toro Rosso drivers have done a wonderful job so far this year and I think it is one of the positive stories in Formula 1 at the moment.
“Red Bull have given them a chance, they’re here on merit and it shows the junior programme is most definitely working.”
Verstappen, who was later seventh in a P2 session interrupted by rain, set his time right as the chequered flag fell and admitted that it had surprised him.
“I was surprised," he told reporters later. "After the flag, I was looking up the screen and I couldn’t find myself. And then I went up and went ‘Oh right, it’s a good lap then’."
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