A filmmaker with a soft spot for Ronnie Peterson, Gilles Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen and above all, Tazio Nuvolari and Ayrton Senna, is also a diehard Formula One fan since the age of 4 (mid-90's). An avid researcher of the past of Grand Prix Racing since before it was even named F1, and with a thirst for knowledge of the ins and outs of the actuality of the sport, as well as for the technical aspects that define it, is a member of GPblog since 2023, where he has put his love of racing to good use.
With four world titles under his belt and over a decade in Formula 1, Max Verstappen is one of the sport's veterans. The many F1 rookies may want to look in the Red Bull Racing driver's direction looking for any tips that may help them settle into their racing boots during their first season in the sport.
Verstappen was once such a rookie himself. So he knows better than anyone what guys like Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar are currently going through. Because easy, the early days certainly are not. Verstappen delves deep into the difficulties of starting out in the sport during a press event at Zandvoort.
"I think if you look back at it now, just the whole race weekend experience. I came from Formula 3, of course, so the longest races I did were 35 minutes. That's quite a big difference compared to the one-and-a-half to two hours I was in the car then," Verstappen says.
Verstappen has become wiser over the years
Learning the intricacies of navigating the team's dynamics is also quite difficult, particularly due to the difference in structure between a feeder series team and an F1 outfit. "Of course, I was only 17 at the time. I couldn't even drive a car on public roads. There were many things I still had to learn, like the setup of the car and, of course, dealing with the media. I'm all a bit more handy and wiser about that now."
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Next season, with Hadjar, Antonelli, Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan, joining the series there will be as many as five rookies on the grid. Liam Lawson, Verstappen's new teammate is not really a rookie, but the New Zealander is very inexperienced. He has only done 11 Grand Prix weekends behind him, so will surely have a lot to learn.
This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen.
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