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MAX-IMUM ATTACK 2017 Season Photos and words by Darren Heath

Monday lunchtime, Heathrow Terminal 5. Standing next to the slowly revolving baggage carousel, a fresh-faced, slightly awkward-looking - just out of his teens - young man is awaiting the arrival of his chattels.

Dressed in bland black trainers, similarly hued skinny jeans and an oversized hoody, this Young Turk ain’t winning any style awards. iPhone in hand, he’s busy swiping the screen in that head-bowed social media style billions of us now ‘enjoy’.

Max Verstappen doesn’t really do flash. He couldn’t look more ‘normal’. Yet put him in a racing car and he’s just about the most special talent to arrive on motor racing’s top step for decades.

Schumacher-esque – Michael of course! – is a term increasingly heard up and down the F1 paddock, such is the impact the Netherlands’ premier sportsman is now making.

I can see it too.

The fresh-faced 16-year-old boy who was, upon his arrival, so ignorantly dismissed by many within the sport is rapidly becoming a man. It’s amazing how quickly young sportsmen living life in the public gaze assume adulthood. Just take a look at Sebastian Vettel. The gawky kid of 2009 became the handsome dude of 2010!

What sets the potentially great apart from the mediocre? What makes Max Verstappen so, so much more special than, say, Carlos Sainz?

I guess it’s the whole package: the look; the mien; the steely character honed to be a racer almost from before he could walk; the utterly uncompromising way he dismisses any questioning of his racecraft; the toys-out-of-the-pram reaction to harsh penalties; the fast straight-out-of-the-box attacking style; and the rapier-like overtaking ability, the like of which we haven’t seen for many a year. Such was Max’s impact on the art of passing and defending, the rules had to be rewritten!

The way the car looks through the turns, the application of throttle, steering and immensely late braking. Metronomic in his blisteringly fast lap time delivery, this boy has the lot. He IS the future of Formula 1.

In so, so many ways – but let’s hope not all – Max is the new MSC.

Racing in an aggressive and forceful style often results in on-track contretemps with some of his more seasoned rivals. No matter, Max takes no prisoners, batting away questions about the legality of some of his racing moves with a dismissive arrogance that’s strangely appealing in its delivery.

Up to speed now and surely making Dan Ricciardo question his team-leading abilities, Verstappen is unquestionably Red Bull’s main man.

Off-track too, Max is sorted. Guided by his F1-experienced father, the young Verstappen has an able and well-qualified navigator at the helm. Learning from his own ill-advised 1990s F1 driving career decisions, Jos pays absolute attention so as to ensure his son maximises the opportunities on offer.

With top-drawer drivers in short supply, Red Bull had better make damned sure their 2019-and-beyond engine supply is top-notch. The bidding war for Max’s signature is already in full swing. Ferrari and Mercedes are enviously eyeing the Dutchman’s abilities with covetous desire.

It’s easy to forget that Max is only 20 years old. Way ahead in racing driver maturity - a relative term! – than so many millions of a similar age, Max has appeared mentally developed beyond his years since first he appeared in the F1 paddock at Spa 2014. It struck me then how entirely capable this 16-year-old boy was dealing with multiple language questions and untold camera lenses. Listening to his interrogator politely before answering calmly and intelligently, Max appeared born to the role…

Fast forward to now and Verstappen is a multiple grand prix winner and 2018 title-chasing challenger. Part of the new breed of F1 racers, Max leads the pack. Publicly respectful of his rivals, although privately dismissive of many, he well knows his place among the potentially great.

Michael Schumacher once opined – in an interview I photographed – that his father had advised him to heed well the arrival on the scene of the next great talent. The one who’d challenge and quickly replace the dominant male. Well, Lewis, Sebastian and Fernando, that man has arrived.

You’d best heed Herr Schumacher’s words well…

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F1 Grand Prix of China April 20, 2024 Photo by Mario Renzi

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F1 Grand Prix of China April 20, 2024 Photo by Mark Thompson

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F1 Grand Prix of China April 19, 2024

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F1 Grand Prix of China April 19, 2024 Photo by Edgar Su

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F1 Grand Prix of China April 18, 2024 Photo by Clive Mason

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Max Verstappen is named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2024

Over the past 12 months, Max Verstappen has won in Miami and Monaco and Abu Dhabi. He’s won in Japan and Qatar and Austria and Hungary, and other places across the continents. No athlete has enjoyed more victory laps, in more disparate places around the world, than Verstappen, the Formula One driver who has won three straight F1 championships. Verstappen, who races under the Dutch flag, is so confident behind the wheel that during at least one race he’s been able to keep an eye on the screens around the track in order to watch the battle going on behind him. Orange-clad fans flock to his races to cheer him on, while others, dressed in the outfits of rival teams like Ferrari and Mercedes, boo him on the podium. The $3.2 billion Formula One business, which grew 25% in 2023, now centers on a singular question. Can anyone stop Verstappen and the Red Bull Racing machine? He’s entrenched—quite comfortably—in the driver’s seat.

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 07, 2024

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Can we talk about some of the set-up choices you made? Because at one point, your engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, came on the radio and said, ‘I don't want to say I told you so’. What was that all about?

We had, well, not an argument, but he was like, ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ I'm like, ‘yeah, I'm pretty sure’. Turned out to be wrong. So he was right. But in a way, it also fires me up, because I'm like, OK, well, even I'm not entirely happy with the balance now, I'll still try to be as consistent as I can be without shouting back at him. But we have a great relationship. And yeah, it works well like that.

F1 Grand Prix of Japan | Post Race Press Conference April 07, 2024

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 07, 2024 Photo by Mark Thompson

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 07, 2024 Photo by Mark Thompson

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 07, 2024 Photo by Andy Hone

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 06, 2024 Photo by Issei Kato

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 05, 2024 Photo by Clive Mason

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 05, 2024 Photo by Mark Thompson

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 04, 2024 Photo by Mark Thompson

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F1 Grand Prix of Japan April 04, 2024 Photo by Clive Rose