Max Verstappen Deserves Guidance, Not Criticism, After Monaco Grand Prix Crash
If you were to create the perfect Formula One driver for the 21st century, the final result would most likely resemble Max Verstappen, who's fast becoming a hybrid of two of the finest talents of the modern era, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.
The Lewis part you see most days, if not every time the light at the end of the pit lane changes from red to green: blisteringly quick, adventurous, imaginative and brave in wheel-to-wheel combat and able to manipulate his machinery.
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The Kimi element, in contrast, is slightly less obvious.
Although he is much chirpier than Raikkonen, Verstappen possesses the self-assurance and steeliness that over the years has made the Finnish driver a cult hero among F1 enthusiasts, allowing him to be unruffled and unfazed by all around him in the often draining, egotistical bubble of the paddock.
It is an advantageous trait to have in any case, but as the youngest-ever F1 driver competing in his rookie season—when everything he does will be directly linked back to his 17 years—it is perhaps more important than anything he will achieve on the track in 2015.
We have seen it already this season following his run to sixth in qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix and his overtaking exploits in China, when the general focus was not quite on what he had achieved but what he had achieved for his age.
The backhanded compliments on the days when Verstappen succeeded meant there was always going to be some kind of furore when he finally made a mistake, but even those around the Dutchman may have been taken aback by the explosion that followed his collision with Romain Grosjean at Sainte Devote in the Monaco Grand Prix.
In the space of one afternoon, one split-second incident, Verstappen went from being mature beyond his years to being too big for his racing boots—such was the outrage over his first notable error behind the wheel of a Formula One car.
Leading the Mad Max campaign, as you would expect, was Felipe Massa, who told Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble how the incident showed "experience counts in F1" before explaining that the sight of a teenager involved in such a high-speed, spectacular accident would leave F1 open to ridicule.
On the eve of this weekend's Canadian GP, Grosjean offered his thoughts, telling the gathered press (h/t ESPN F1's Nate Saunders) of his disappointment that Verstappen had failed to apologise for the shunt.
Massa then returned to the saddle of his high horse in Thursday's FIA press conference, where he insinuated that Verstappen's age was all the more reason for the governing body to hand the Dutchman a five-place grid penalty for the Montreal event. The point was to address any flaws in his discipline before they grow to become a bigger issue, despite Verstappen having no track record of causing on-track incidents.
Verstappen's reaction was priceless as, per the same source, he advised Massa to "review the race from last year," which ended with the Williams driver colliding with the Force India of Sergio Perez on the approach to Turn 1, sparking a mighty crash.
In a situation in which other, lesser young drivers would perhaps let their heads drop and waffle about how a crash of that magnitude was a "learning experience," Verstappen's engagement in verbal conflict with Massa, whose post-racing life will surely include a high-visibility jacket, was refreshing.
And following his comments to Red Bull's Greg Stuart last year about mental strength—"To be honest, I find it a bit bulls--t"—it was the latest indication that thankfully, like Kimi before him, Verstappen will be completely unmoved by the noise around him.
The true beauty of Verstappen's debut season is to marvel at how quickly a youngster can challenge expectations and conventional wisdom, to watch how he explores and finds his way around such a highly complicated sport, and to observe how he recovers from his inevitable errors and the obstacles standing in his way.
In as hyperbolic a game as F1, in which today's hero is tomorrow's villain, Verstappen's peers were never going to come to accept that reality, yet the bile targeted at the Toro Rosso rookie by experienced drivers—those who endured difficulties of their own yet came through the other side—since Monaco has been wholly unnecessary.
He deserves their guidance, not their criticism.
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