Dutchman would have been in line to replace Hamilton at Mercedes if the champion moves to Ferrari but instead he may be the man who keeps Honda in the sportJust days into the new year, with many good intentions already falling by the wayside, Max Verstappen has displayed the boldest of resolve. The Dutchman’s decision to re-sign with Red Bull until the end of 2023 is a commitment of confidence in the future of the team that brought him into Formula One. He clearly believes they can deliver a title-challenging car and in a month marked by attempts to be abstemious, Verstappen’s signature is just the stiffener Red Bull and their engine supplier Honda required.Verstappen will enter his sixth season...
Dutchman is starting his fifth season in F1 and the principal thinks that the 21-year-old’s work with Honda will produce a more invested and rounded driverMad Max no more was the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s assessment of his driver Max Verstappen’s forthcoming season. Horner, always engaging in discussing the characters of his drivers, was confident that this year it will be mature Max behind the wheel. Yet the test the young Dutchman faces may be his most challenging; watching whether he can deliver on Horner’s optimism should be compelling.Verstappen is 21, and has an undeniable talent, aligned to a forceful, uncompromising self belief that has been at times to his detriment as well as his advantage. In both...
With the new regulations 2017 will be a season-long development race, and the Red Bull team looks best-equipped to challenge the dominance of MercedesThey are called testing sessions but the two weeks Formula One is spending in Barcelona this year are proving to be a mighty tease as well. Sandbagging and keeping one’s cards close to one’s chest are long-established elements of the pre-season runs, but this year, with brand-new cars designed to the new regulations, no team want to reveal too much and lose any advantage they may have stolen over the winter. Times – only ever a loose guide before the real business begins – are therefore perhaps less revealing than ever but in the case of the...