Youngster pushes stars
Verstappen, 18, stays in contention for entire race, finishing in fourth place.
The usual suspects climbed onto the podium after the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton clinched a world title when he crossed the finish line first, Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was close behind, and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who races for Ferrari, was third.
Most pundits, and frankly anyone who looked at the season standings before the race, could have predicted that finish.
But, not many would have thought they would see Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen trading blows and pushing the leaders for the entire 56-lap race. He eventually settled for fourth place for the second time in his young career.
And there where a couple factors working against Verstappen.
At 18, he’s the youngest driver on the track and had never raced at COTA. He also missed out on extra practice sessions, which could have benefited Verstappen after torrential rain altered the weekend schedule.
“That’s tough. It would have been nice to do more,” Verstappen had said Saturday. “We’ll see what we can do, and I would have preferred to have more practice.”
He was also working with a lesser Renaud engine than his Mercedes and Ferrari counterparts. That was a highly discussed topic this past week as Red Bull — which owns Torro Rosso — ponders its future in Formula One.
While Red Bull and Toro Rosso’s futures are in question, Verstappen is one of F1’s future stars.
He made his debut in this season’s first race, pulling up to the starting grid in Australia when he was 17 years, 166 days old. In his second race, he finished seventh and set another age record as the youngest driver to secure championship points.
And those records have likely been locked in, thanks to new FIA regulations going into effect for 2016.
Starting in 2016, the FIA will require drivers to be 18 before they can acquire a super license, the proper accreditation required to drive in F1.
“Kind of cool, right?” Verstappen said Saturday.
Verstappen also has the unique distinction of getting a super license before acquiring his drivers license.
Verstappen turned 18 on Sept. 30 and passed his road test on his first attempt. Like most teenagers, he took to social media to celebrate and tweeted “Legal to drive. Born to race! #driverlicense.”
Back on the track, Verstappen battled through a series of disappointments, failing to finish three of seven races in the middle of the season.
“Difficult sure, but it taught me a lot,” Verstappen said Sunday. “From there, it got a lot better.”
After failing to finish at the British Grand Prix, Verstappen has now secured points in six of his last seven races. Sunday’s fourth-place finish matched his finish in Hungary as the top performance of his career.
“Exciting,” Verstappen said. “It was a good race and we felt like we could compete on intermediate tires — and we did.”