When Red Bull caused controversy by signing 16-year-old Verstappen

In the summer of 2014, Red Bull Racing’s famed junior programme was looking for the next cab off the rank after the successes of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. 

Ricciardo had been promoted to the senior team for that season and had given the out-of-sorts reigning champion Vettel the runaround that ended up with him jumping to Ferrari for 2015. 

This has prompted a reshuffle within the Red Bull ranks with Daniil Kvyat promoted to partner Ricciardo, but by the time this all happened around the Japanese and Russian Grands Prix, Red Bull had already taken a bold driver step. 

For 2015, with the junior Toro Rosso squad, it would hand Max Verstappen his F1 debut, with the Dutch driver being just 16 at the time of the announcement, on August 12th, 2014. 

The decision taken by motorsport advisor Helmut Marko was for a couple of reasons, with Verstappen only having a single season of car racing in Euro F3 under his belt. 

But he had stunned at times during that 2014 campaign, including winning six straight races in the three-headed events at Spa and the Norisring, the latter of which was in torrid rain.

At Spa, he defeated eventual series champion Esteban Ocon in two of the three races, which was enough to pique the interest of Marko, who also had the only carrot to dangle in front of Verstappen to stop Mercedes circling: a full-time F1 seat. 

Mercedes did not have a space at either its works team or the Williams, Force India or Lotus outfits for 2015, whereas a tenancy agreement for a Toro Rosso cockpit was open, with Verstappen signing on the dotted line. 

He would take part in three FP1 sessions later in 2014 in Japan, the United States and Brazil in place of Jean-Eric Vergne, the driver whose seat he would take for ’15.

Come Australia 2015, Verstappen was just 17 years, 166 days old when he made his F1 debut, a record that will likely stand the test of time.

What did Verstappen say?

“It should be clear that I am very happy and honoured to be part of the Red Bull Junior Team, which has coached many drivers in the past and brought them to Formula 1,” Verstappen reflected at the announcement.

“I will seize this opportunity with both hands to make the most of my career together with Red Bull. I would like to thank Helmut Marko for his contribution to this and for making this collaboration possible.

“I would like to thank Red Bull for their confidence in me.”

Fast forward a little over a year after his debut, Kvyat was booted ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix from Red Bull with Verstappen promoted to the senior team. 

61 wins, three world championships and a shattered record book later, it proved to be a rather successful swap.