Tost ignored 'experts': 'I said: but not for Max Verstappen'

When Max Verstappen finished a Formula 3 weekend at the Norisring in 2014, not only Helmut Marko was immediately convinced, but also Franz Tost. The team boss of AlphaTauri (in previous seasons known as Toro Rosso) wanted Verstappen to be part of his team immediately.

"I remember it well: wet track, it was raining. As you know, a round on the Norisring is short: it doesn't take a minute. Yet Max was one or two seconds faster than the rest," Tost remembers. Soon after that there was a telephone conversation with Marko. "Helmut and I are, of course, always in contact about these matters, we discuss the operations of young drivers in detail. It was clear to me that I wanted Max in our car, as a driver and not as a test driver."

And so it happened. In 2015, Verstappen made his debut in Formula 1 together with Carlos Sainz.

"Many 'experts' said it was far too early. To which I said: but not for Max Verstappen. Because he is not a passenger in the car, as you often see with newcomers, but he drives the car. How he controlled the car, who controlled it completely... Extraordinary," Tost said to Formule 1 Magazine.