1 week Ago By The Straits Times
Red Bull's Max Verstappen is one of the many Formula One drivers who have battled the unforgiving city street track in Macau. MACAU – The Macau Grand Prix, back for its 71st edition on Nov 17, is renowned as the proving ground for young motorsport talent and exactly 10 years ago the eyes of the world were on a teenage Max Verstappen as he arrived in the southern Chinese city. The young Dutchman was already being tipped as a Formula One world champion of the future when he strapped himself into an F3 car to take on the treacherous Guia Circuit in November 2014.
He had one aim in mind, to emulate the F3 victories of his heroes Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, who had conquered the 6.2km of narrow, unforgiving city street track – one of the greatest challenges in motorsport. Signed a few months earlier by Red Bull’s junior team, Verstappen had been guaranteed a 2015 Toro Rosso Formula One seat after only a single season in the European F3 Championship.
He won 10 out of 33 races in F3, with 27 of them, incredibly, taking place before his 17th birthday. “It’s definitely unheard of what Verstappen did that year,” motor racing expert Mattias Persson said. “That 2014 season, I think it’s one of the standout performances that I’ve ever seen in motorsport.
” In October that year, Verstappen replaced Jean-Eric Vergne in practice at the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest F1 driver in history at just 17 years and three days old. Just over a month later he took to the treacherous streets of Macau for the ultimate test of man and machine. He proved to be quick, third fastest on the Friday, and started the next day’s qualifying race from fifth, after a penalty.
He flew off the grid and up to second behind pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist of Sweden. Challenging for the lead in his Van Amersfoort car, Verstappen pushed a fraction too hard, brushed a barrier and was flung into the unforgiving wall and his qualifying was over. He ended up 24th on the grid for the Sunday race as critics lined up to tell Red Bull they had been wrong to entrust an F1 seat to someone so raw.
But an inspired Verstappen surged through the field to finish seventh on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, taking the honours for the fastest lap. The winner was Rosenqvist, who repeated that Macau victory a year later ahead of another famous F1 name, Charles Leclerc. Also in the Macau race in 2014 were future F1 drivers Esteban Ocon, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi, such was the talent on display.
“I remember being very nervous,” recalled Rosenqvist of the 2014 race. “I told myself before the start that if I can handle this kind of pressure, then it’s going to be something good for me.” So it proved, as the Swede went on to become IndyCar Rookie of the Year in 2019 and has driven in the premier US series ever since.
Persson, who has attended the Macau Grand Prix since 2010, handles Rosenqvist’s PR and said he was privileged to have a front-row seat as Verstappen burst on the scene. “I attended every race in the 2014 F3 championship with Felix. It was definitely very unique,” he said.
“The kind of drivers that were racing in F3 were very, very good racers. And they’d been doing it for years. Verstappen came in and was extremely fast out of the box.
” All but five of the 20 drivers on the F1 grid in Las Vegas next weekend have cut their teeth in Macau, including seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen can cement a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship in Sin City, 10 years after wowing fans in another neon-lit Casino city of Macau. There, but for a single mistake, he could have fulfilled his dream to write his name in lights alongside Senna and Schumacher.
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