Amid Recent Sergio Perez Row, Max Verstappen Was Once Hailed for Disobeying Team Orders

Max Verstappen has always shown his hunger for winning. Either it’s winning the Grand Prix or gaining victory over his teammate.
Back in 2015, when Verstappen raced for Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) an incident happened where he didn’t listen to the team’s order. At that time, the team boss hailed the dutchman and approved his decision.

During the early days of Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso, he was a teammate to Carlos Sainz. If you think Sergio Perez was the only one to suffer the stubbornness of the Dutchman, you might be wrong. The team bosses have always loved and admired Verstappen’s attitude. His mentality makes him unique from several other drivers.

Back in 2015 at Singapore GP, during the last laps, when the Toro Rosso pair was flashing at eighth and ninth positions, Verstappen was asked to let pass Carlos Sainz in order to attack P7 Sergio Perez as the Spaniard was running on fresher super-soft tires. However, Max Verstappen refused to follow the team’s order.

Although, later the Dutchman’s strategy was approved by the team boss, and instead of getting bashed by Tost, Verstappen earned his praise,” Carlos had new tyres therefore we thought we could switch positions. But then Carlos was too slow, he was too far behind and Max was right. He saw that Carlos was not closing up and Carlos could not have caught Perez so we were right to let them go.” said Tost.

Adding further, the 66-year-old said, “Carlos was always a minimum of three to five-tenths behind, if he wants us to swap the positions, he must be closer to him or it doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t have caught Perez.”

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Franz Tost is one of the biggest admirers of Max Verstappen and he believes that the Dutchman has all the traits and compared him to the legend, Michael Schumacher.

Franz Tost recalls the early days of Max Verstappen and how the Dutchman reminded him of Michael Schumacher

Having mentored some of the best Formula 1 racing drivers, Franz Tost has provided the grounding, the younger prospects needs. The following are some names that Franz Tost has worked with. Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.

And of off-course the great Michael Schumacher. A few months back, the AlphaTauri team boss compared the rainy lap Schumacher performed at Salzburgring to Verstappen’s very first performance. The Seven times champion got noticed by the 66-year-old Austrian when he lapped the entire field in a rainy Formula Ford race. Kind of the same performance of Verstappen’s caught the eyes of the Tost.

“I met Max for the first time with his father at the Nürburgring,” he said. “The next time was at the Norisring in Formula 3. In the rain, he drove in a league of his own, as if he was the only one who had discovered a dry line. He immediately reminded me of Michael Schumacher.”

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Lots of effort has been put in to make Max Verstappen. Franz Tost probably played a crucial role in making him one of the most talented F1 stars.