Verstappen's former race engineer: 'That's the most impressive thing'

Nowadays, Max Verstappen is a three-time world champion. The Dutchman once started at Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) as a rookie in Formula 1. At the time, Xevi Pujolar was Verstappen's race engineer, who was helped by the Spaniard and trained to become a more than successful F1 driver.

Pujolar, who now works for Alfa Romeo (Sauber), and he is head of trackside engineering. As to why he once (suddenly) left the Red Bull family, full disclosure has never been made. Rather, the Spaniard does not talk about that. He would much rather talk about his former pupil, now grown into a star.

In Mexico, Pujolar talked about that first period of Verstappen's career in Formula 1. Sixteen years only, but oh so talented. "I think for me, it was very impressive from day one, from the first test I had, on the way, how he was asking curiosity to push everything around him on the car, on the people working for him, and then the skills on the driving," said the Spaniard.

Yet above all, there is one thing Pujolar will always remember: "I think the most impressive on the way, how he's pushing himself, but he's pushing everyone around just to extract everything from the performance side," said Pujolar, who has never made a secret of considering Verstappen a friend for life.