One very good thing about Dr. Marko and Red Bull is that they do push young guns to the limit. By doing so they aim to discover who is the real talent in F.1, who can take so much pressure and subsequently take little time in deciding if he deserves a seat in the highest category of motor sport.. Yesterday Red Bull announced 17 year old Max Verstappen to be the youngest ever driver to debut in the Formula One Championship. I have been involved in drivers management since the early 90’s and when the young dutchman was selected to be part of the Junior Red Bull program one week ago, I thought they would, sooner or later, give him a shot in a Toro Rosso. However, I must admit that I never thought he would land a F.1 seat at the end of this year. For sure, I thought, they would monitor him for one more season at the wheel of an intermediate open wheeler such as a Renault 3.5 or a Gp2, and at the same time keep him under close eye by gifting him with a reserve driver role in the Faenza’s squad.
That would have made much more sense. This strategy would have given young Max the opportunity to learn more about F.1 by being present at all F.1 technical briefs during GP week-ends, familiarize himself with all the complex procedures, carry on much of the simulator work and run all the testing possible under the current regulations. That would have been already a big leap forward for such a talented young man. But this time Red Bull and Dr Marko decided to break the schemes, and go for the kill. They must know something that I do ignore…