Ex-team boss believes Max Verstappen is confident but not ‘arrogant’
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Max Verstappen
Former Toro Rosso boss, Graham Watson was Max Verstappen’s boss when the Dutchman had his first free practice session in 2014. The youngster drove for Toro Rosso in 2015, before he was called upon by Red Bull for the Spanish GP in 2016.
After winning the Spanish GP in 2016, Max Verstappen has been a mainstay at Red Bull over the years. He claimed his first ever F1 title in 2021, after dethroning Lewis Hamilton. Speaking about Max Verstappen’s earlier days, Watson stated that the Dutchman was very self-confident and was in no way arrogant.
The ex-Toro Rosso boss suggested that Max Verstappen was more like his father, Jos Verstappen who showed pure aggression and had the self-confidence.
“Well, at the end of 2014 Max had already driven some free practice sessions for Toro Rosso. Max isn’t arrogant but like his father, he does brim with self-confidence. I saw that for the first time in Brazil, where he had quite a moment during free practice and almost crashed heavily,” said Watson to Motorsport.
“Normally a young driver would be upset, but Max managed to keep the car under control and a lap later set the fastest time,” he added.
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Max Verstappen has matured with time: Graham Watson
Graham Watson believes that Max Verstappen has certainly matured since his earlier days. He stated that this evolution was quite natural, as Verstappen was still in his teenage years when he was with Toro Rosso.
Graham Watson added that he found Verstappen a very friendly guy to converse with and he had no issues of any kind. He also recalled a moment with the Dutchman in Monaco last year, where they chatted for a while.
“He is a lot more mature, but that makes sense because he was still literally a teenager with us. Anyway, I always found him an easy guy to deal with, certainly not arrogant,” said Graham.
“For example, last year in Monaco, during the rally, I was invited to join the launch party and Max was there as a guest speaker. I was just standing in the audience watching the opening and after the speech he came off the stage and walked over to me,” he continued.
“He walked past everyone and asked ‘hey, Graham, what are you doing here, are you invited by Red Bull?’ Just have a chat. That’s nice, and in that respect he hasn’t changed dramatically or anything. You just see he is more mature,” Graham added.
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Nirmit Mehta
(2425 Articles Published)