Watch Martin Brundle's interview with Max in full during Sky F1's build-up to the Monaco GP from 11.30am
Tuesday 31 May 2016 11:37, UK
Talk about an old head on young shoulders: Max Verstappen has revealed to Sky F1 how he 'played with' Kimi Raikkonen to complete his debut win in the Spanish GP.
Verstappen went from hero to zero in qualifying for the Monaco GP on Saturday when he crashed out, suffering a hefty bump in both the unforgiving barriers and his steep learning curve, but there are few in the paddock who don't believe the teenager is a future world champion.
Verstappen's victory, on his Red Bull debut, made him the youngest-ever winner in the sport. While his raw pace has been abundantly clear since he joined the grid aged 17, the Dutchman has revealed in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports F1, to be broadcast during the build-up of Sky F1's exclusively live coverage of Sunday's Monaco GP, the details of the astonishingly-mature race craft which secured victory.
"It all started to change after the second stop," Verstappen told Sky F1's Martin Brundle. "I knew l had 32 laps to do on my new set of tyres so l tried to play with Kimi in the fast corners. I let him come close so he would destroy his tyres."
As Brundle himself had noted in his post-race column for Sky Sports, Verstappen had 'worked out that every time Raikkonen got close into turn one using slipstream, full power and DRS the Ferrari would then spend a lap charging its batteries in preparation for another try.
'So on the alternate laps Verstappen would protect his tyres in anticipation of the next onslaught. Such a calm maturity, it simply doesn't seem possible at 18.'
But it was, with the unflappable Verstappen utterly unfazed when the thought dawned that victory was in his grasp.
"With five laps to go," the Red Bull driver replied when asked when he knew he could win. "Kimi had been seven tenths behind and then he dropped away. So l said to myself 'don't make a mistake and l can win this race'."
So how does someone so young remain so calm under so pressure?
"Whether you are winning in F3 or F1, it's pretty similar - there's just more people watching."
With that sort of unfazed perspective it's little wonder that so many of those people believe that Verstappen will still be a very young man when he wins his first F1 championship.
