Verstappen on indispensable time: 'What do you expect?'

The Red Bull Racing driver competed in an official race for the first time on 15 March 2015. At the time, he drove the Australian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso. His time with the racing stable was short-lived, however, as over a year later his strong performance saw him swap places with Daniil Kvjat and suddenly find himself in a Red Bull car. In his first race in Barcelona, he immediately pulled off a win.

"What do you expect when you’re 17? You have to make mistakes; you have to learn," Verstappen stated in the interview."I had only done one year in racing outside of karts — in F3 — so it was a natural learning curve to go through. It’s fine because I started at Toro Rosso, so it wasn’t like I was fighting for the World Championship at the time. It was good to fight in the midfield and really work for it. You learn a lot of things that way."

Verstappen in world championship

The Dutchman has finished fifth, sixth, fourth, third and third in the world championship since joining Red Bull. This season he still has a chance of winning his first world title, with the lead over Lewis Hamilton standing at 12 points.