F1 2015 Head-to-Head: Max Verstappen vs. Carlos Sainz Jr. at Toro Rosso
"Kids, isn't it?" Mark Webber told ITV's television coverage of the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix after being punted out of the race by Sebastian Vettel, the Toro Rosso driver in his first full season of Formula One.
"Kids with not enough experience, (they) do a good job and then they f--k it all up."
The interview may have been ended abruptly as the Australian—denied the chance to take his maiden grand prix win through no fault of his own—stormed away, but Webber's words have lived long in the memory.
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Sparring partners at Red Bull Racing for five seasons between 2009 and 2013, Vettel and Webber came to blows on several occasions—most notable, of course, was their collision at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and the team orders row at Malaysia 2013—and youth, very often, had the edge over experience.
Vettel, the youngest-ever grand prix winner in history by the time he arrived at Red Bull, claimed the team's first win and went on to become the youngest-ever four-time world champion in just four years while Webber, for all his experience, was reduced to a mere support role until his retirement at the end of 2013.
And since Webber walked away from the sport, that quote has taken on a wider significance as the kids have taken over to the point where, little more than seven years after he fumed at a rainy Fuji Speedway, his words now feel as if they belong in a distant, bygone era of F1.
The emergence of mid-20-somethings Daniel Ricciardo, Webber's replacement at Red Bull, and Valtteri Bottas, in just his second season, as potential world champions in 2014 was complemented by the rise of Daniil Kvyat, who at 19 broke Vettel's record as the youngest-ever point-scorer in just his first grand prix and went on to replace the German at Red Bull for this year.
Yet the most significant development came at Toro Rosso, where Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. were signed to create the youngest driver lineup on the grid with a combined age of 37, Webber's age when he completed his last lap behind the wheel of an F1 car.
The move to sign drivers of such youth—even by the standards of Toro Rosso, this training ground for junior racers—sent ripples through the paddock, but in 17-year-old Verstappen, the team have someone who could revolutionise the way we view young drivers and signal the end of the days of 30-year-old, first-time world champions.
It is difficult to remember a more hotly anticipated debut than that of the Dutchman, son of former F1 driver Jos, who will become the youngest driver to start a race by some margin in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix in just his second season of car racing.
Despite finishing a relatively distant third in last year's European Formula Three championship, 67 points behind title winner and fellow rookie Esteban Ocon, Verstappen's 10 wins—including a run of six consecutive victories over the course of the Spa and Norisring rounds—marked him down as a future star.
But the results, particularly for someone so young, are secondary to his application when it comes to judging the real potential of Verstappen, who impressed in a handful of practice sessions for Toro Rosso toward the end of 2014.
And that is an area in which he excels, with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko comparing the Dutchman—"an exceptional talent that comes along only once in decades"—to Ayrton Senna, the three-time world champion and arguably the greatest driver the sport has ever seen, in a Formula1.com interview last year.
Meanwhile, Verstappen's race engineer, Xevi Pujolar—a former colleague of Webber, Juan Pablo Montoya and Eddie Irvine—told GPUpdate.net in pre-season that the 17-year-old is "the best" driver he's worked with, paying tribute to the youngster's professionalism, discipline and focus.
With Verstappen receiving such rave reviews before he's even started a grand prix, you might wonder why Sainz Jr. should even bother turning up in 2015.
Indeed, Toro Rosso's decision to sign Verstappen last August, when it seemed for all the world that Sainz Jr. was next in line to replace Jean-Eric Vergne, suggests the team were not entirely convinced by the Spaniard's qualities, although Sainz Jr. later denied this to Autosport's Pablo Elizalde and Matt Beer.
And with good reason, for the son of rally legend Carlos Sainz will be hoping to prove that experience still counts for something at the tender age of 20.
Sainz Jr. may not be subjected to as much hype as his team-mate, but he enters his first F1 campaign as a champion after emulating Kevin Magnussen, the McLaren reserve driver, by winning the Formula Renault 3.5 series with DAMS in 2014.
His seven victories, according to Autosport magazine's Glenn Freeman and Marcus Simmons, was a series record for wins in a single season, with his seven pole positions and six fastest laps confirming his outright pace.
Sainz Jr.'s strength of character to rebound from the initial knockback from Toro Rosso—effectively sealing the FR 3.5 crown with two wins at the penultimate round at Paul Ricard—should also be a source of confidence heading into what should be a testing year alongside Verstappen.
Such is the team's track record in ruthlessly ditching drivers that questions are bound to be asked about the Spaniard's future should Verstappen string together a sequence of strong finishes or somehow manage to claim that one momentous result.
It is something that, rightly or wrongly, simply won't happen to the teenager on the other side of the garage, and Sainz Jr. should prepare to fight for his career for the second year running.
Although Toro Rosso's employment of two drivers without a single F1 start between them could be considered a weakness, the presence of two raw yet extremely talented youngsters should return a sense of purpose to a team who in recent years have perhaps been too content with existing as a Red Bull B team.
As close as the battle between the pair could be, it is difficult to look beyond Verstappen as far as inter-team supremacy is concerned.
The kid might not have enough experience, but he's more than capable of doing a good job. And what's more, he'll get better and better as the season goes on.
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