First race in Red Bull, first victory
It has been just ten years since that historic victory of Max Verstappen in his absolute debut with Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, when the Dutchman surprised everyone by climbing to the top step of the podium at the age of 18 years and 7 months. Even today, that success represents the record for the youngest driver of all time to have won a GP, also favored by a sensational collision at the start between Hamilton and Rosberg, then teammates at Mercedes and championship dominators. In hindsight, the decision to promote Verstappen from Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) to Red Bull replacing Daniil Kvyat seemed almost obvious, despite the future four-time world champion’s debut in F1 at only 17 years old. The problem, however, was another.
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Not everyone agreed
Indeed, because the move to the Milton Keynes team was not simple: Helmut Marko, who personally witnessed Verstappen’s growth and talent in his Red Bull Junior Team, faced strong resistance within the team, opposed to the arrival of the Dutchman. Among these, the team principal Christian Horner was against the Austrian manager’s choice to promote Verstappen, and Marko himself recalled this in an interview with De Telegraaf: “Max’s teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr., was very disappointed by our choice, but for us it was a clear and simple decision. Horner did not agree with Max’s promotion after only four races in 2016, he was against it. Just like many rivals and critics attacked me, saying that Max was too young and that this was a risky move“.
Criticism rejected
The final decision, however, was made after the 2016 Russian GP, when Kvyat made mistakes that, together with unconvincing performances at the start of the year, led to the Dutchman moving to Red Bull in Barcelona: “Kvyat crashed twice in that race – Marko recalled – the year before he had still achieved good results, sometimes even better than Ricciardo, especially in the wet. But in 2016 he was no longer the same driver and from the first day of testing he complained about the brakes. It was clear that we had to do something. Jos [Verstappen] had already sensed it. He called me asking something like: ‘Should we come to Graz?’. I deliberately avoided saying what it was about, but the next day we were already together in Austria. We knew we would receive a lot of criticism. But fortunately both Jos and I were used to this kind of attacks”.
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A decision that proved correct both for Marko and the late Dietrich Mateschitz, with the two winning the bet of bringing the very young talent to Red Bull: “It was an incredible race. The Mercedes accident was certainly a bit lucky, but immediately after Max showed all his class. He was faster than teammate Ricciardo and in the final stages Kimi Raikkonen stayed less than a second behind him lap after lap. Even though Kimi was faster on the straights, he couldn’t overtake Max because he drove smartly and maturely. Even Jos and Max’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, could hardly believe it. For me personally, and also for Dietrich, it was a huge relief. People thought we were crazy, but now we could silence all the critics“.
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