Max Verstappen

[b] Aged 17, Verstappen signed for Toro Rosso in 2015 as part of the Red Bull Junior Team, becoming the youngest driver in Formula One history at the Australian Grand Prix.[34][35] Further adding to his accolades in 2013, Verstappen also finished third at the KF World Championship after being disqualified for a move on Nicklas Nielsen in the final race, having won the opening round and pre-final.[50][51][52][53] During the first practice session at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen replaced Jean-Éric Vergne as part of his preparation for a full-time seat at Toro Rosso in the 2015 season.He attempted an overtake on the reigning World Champion at the start of lap two, but collided with the Mercedes driver and suffered a puncture that ultimately led to suspension damage, forcing him out of the race.After numerous position changes between the two teammates during the race, Ricciardo ran into the back of Verstappen during an overtake attempt from which the Dutchman aggressively defended, causing the retirement of both cars.[106] Verstappen did not compete and did not set a lap time in qualifying, therefore teammate Ricciardo pressed home Red Bull's advantage at the track by taking pole position and the race win.[118] Following the qualifying session at the Mexican Grand Prix, Verstappen revealed that a mechanical problem with his Red Bull under braking cost him any chance of becoming the youngest-ever Formula One pole-sitter.[129] Verstappen was on course for a second third-place finish in Bahrain before a late safety car prevented him from overtaking Charles Leclerc's ailing Ferrari, keeping him in fourth place.[145] In Hungary, he claimed the first pole position of his career and led most of the race before being passed in the closing laps by Hamilton, who had made another stop for fresh tyres in a gamble to catch the leader.[154] In Mexico, he qualified in first place after setting the fastest lap-time of the session, before being handed a grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags after a crash by Valtteri Bottas.[176] During Free Practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix, Verstappen was criticised for comments he made on the team radio after a collision with Lance Stroll, where he used the words "retard" and "mongol" in response to the clash.[194] Verstappen clinched pole position again at the Styrian Grand Prix and led the race from start to finish, to give him his fourth win of the season and further extend his lead to 18 points.[201][202] He was taken to the Silverstone circuit's medical centre after the crash and was then taken to Coventry hospital for precautionary checks and further assessment, before eventually being discharged at 22:00 local time on Sunday night.[204] At the next race, the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen's car suffered damage in a multi-car collision on lap 1, where Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was deemed at fault.He attempted to re-pass Hamilton at turn six, who controversially cut the track and maintained the lead without penalty, despite Verstappen and Red Bull's complaints over team radio.[226][227] Mark Hughes of Motor Sport also ranked Verstappen first, describing his season as a "stunning combination of speed and racecraft, totally fearless, incredible tenacity and ability to comeback from adversity".He started ninth at the Miami Grand Prix as red flags in qualifying aborted his lap but passed the drivers ahead including pole-sitter Pérez to win.The next four races, the Monaco, Spanish, Canadian and Austrian Grands Prix, were won comfortably from pole position by Verstappen, including Red Bull's 100th victory in Canada[241] and a sprint win in Austria.He claimed pole and the win in the Belgian Grand Prix sprint and set the fastest qualifying time, but started the race sixth due to an engine component penalty.Both Red Bulls were eliminated in Q2 at the Singapore Grand Prix and were unable to make an impression in the race, with Verstappen and Pérez finishing fifth and eighth respectively, ending the winning streak.[252] He took another sprint win at the Miami Grand Prix[253] and started on pole position, but lost the lead to Lando Norris during the pit stops and was unable to reclaim the place, finishing the race second.[287] Winning eight Grands Prix in all, Andrew Benson of BBC Sport proclaimed it as a "towering achievement from a driver recognised as one of the all-time greats of Formula 1", describing his season as "almost flawless" whilst "not [having] the best car for the majority".[288] Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix, leading every lap after having his pole position stripped for driving unnecessarily slowly in qualifying; the incident led to a widely publicised feud with George Russell.After the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen became the first driver to win a title driving for a third-placed team in the World Constructors' Championship since Nelson Piquet in 1983.[295] Peter Windsor, an experienced Formula One journalist, expressed Verstappen's ability to change direction "quicker than anybody else" through the high-speed section Maggots and Becketts: Silverstone's fastest sequence of corners.He is intrinsically able to create, for "a trillionth of a second", a minuscule "flat area" between the left and the right of a change of direction ahead of him, in order to attain a stable balance with the car before applying the next steering and throttle input.For a driver who has demolished three successive team mates in three years and made only a handful of small mistakes in that time, you question what scope their [sic] even is for improvement – but if he can take his game onto another level from here, we could be about to see the start of a new era of dominance.[310][311] Following Verstappen being given a warning for his driving conduct at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, the 18-year-old received the backing of then three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who commented: "firstly, give the guy a break, he is 18 years old."[312] Despite earning high praise and acclaim from Formula One drivers and experts in and out of the sport, Verstappen faced criticism in the wake of the penalties he incurred during the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.[321][322] Several races across Europe have dedicated Verstappen grandstands to accommodate thousands of travelling Dutch fans, boosting ticket sales at Grands Prix such as in Belgium, Austria and Hungary.