Did Max Verstappen Force the FIA to Change the Rules Even Before Stepping Into an F1 Car?

Today, we are going to discuss the man who rode an F1 car before he got his driver’s license in the real world. No prizes for guessing the name right – it is none other than 2-time, and reigning world champion Max Verstappen. There have been close to 20 drivers from the Netherlands to have raced in F1 but none got as close to such gigantic success as Verstappen.

The Dutchman is known to be aggressive when it comes to racing but currently, looks very peaceful and has a humorous side to him during interviews. The source for that aggression seems to have found its roots during his karting days. But the main question is how did he ascend from karting to F1 in such a short period of time?

How did Max Verstappen get into F1 so early?

At 25 years old, Verstappen is set to surpass legends of the sport like Fernando Alonso and match the likes of Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart, and Nelson Piquet (who’s also his girlfriend Kelly Piquet’s father). It is no news that the Dutchman is an extremely gifted driver. He started his racing journey by showing his exploits in the European Karting circuit and made it to F3 by the time he was 16 years old.

A teenage Verstappen, driving for Van Amersfoort Racing, won 6 consecutive races in his debut F3 season and 10 wins in total. Scoring 411 points, he finished 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship and made the world take notice of his talent. However, Red Bull was one step ahead. Franz Tost, then-Team Principal of Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s junior team, had been eyeing Verstappen’s insane driving style and talent since his Karting days.

“Max Verstappen is one of the highest skilled drivers I’ve ever worked with,” Tost told theathletic. “Some of the kart races, Mamma Mia! How he drove, how he overtook, and how he had everything under control, was just fantastic.” On the back of his fantastic F3 season, Toro Rosso fast-tracked his climb to F1. Instead of getting promoted to F2, Verstappen directly got an F1 seat the next year.

But this preponement of getting an F1 seat led to the Formula 1 introducing a new rule in the sport.

What rules did the FIA change when Max Verstappen joined F1?

When Verstappen drove for F3’s Van Amersfoort Racing in 2014, he was 16 years old. And when he got promoted directly to F1 in 2015, he was 17 and the youngest driver in the history of the sport. Now, how did a teenager who was then ineligible for getting a regular driver’s license in the majority of the countries in the world drive at the pinnacle of motorsport at 17 years of age?

This exact argument got presented to the governing body of F1, the FIA. As a result, to also match the rules in the regular world of everyday driving, the FIA introduced a new rule the next year. It stated that no racer under the age of 18 would be allowed to compete in F1. But this rule, in no way affected Verstappen because he was 18 by the time the rule came into effect in 2016. In the same year, he won his maiden race in F1 in Spain.

Read More: Red Bull Boss Shares the Ultimate Moment He Realized Max Verstappen’s Potential in F1

To top it up, courtesy of this rule, Verstappen owns this F1 record of being the youngest driver to race in F1 for eternity. This age limit rule isn’t the only one that his presence brought about. His aggressive driving style led to another major rule getting implemented in Formula 1.

Did Max Verstappen’s precocious journey create regulatory ripples in Formula 1?

As we have seen, Max Verstappen’s entrance into F1 was premature. However, it was only the timing that was premature and not his talent. He proved his worth in his debut season and got 3 awards from the FIA  – ‘Rookie of the Year’, ‘Personality of the Year’, and ‘Action of the Year’. That was the first time that a driver took more than 3 awards in a single season.

Aggressive driving had become his signature and he secured a considerable amount of points (49, in 2015) on the back of it. However, what he lacked was experience. And his erratic maneuvers on the racetrack proved trouble for his rivals and were called ‘dangerous’. While defending his position, he moved a fair amount under braking. The most affected by his moves, were Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

After receiving multiple complaints about the Dutchman’s antics, the FIA brought in a new rule which stated that any driver who moved unusually under braking would be reported to the stewards. Though the rule was loosened a bit in 2017, Verstappen sure did make F1 incidentally safer.

As the years have passed by, the young karting prodigy has risen to the status of a double world champion and is hunting for more. Moreover, the way he’s racing in 2023, participating in the rest of the races to clinch the 3rd World Championship is a mere formality.

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