On this day 10 years ago, Max Verstappen well and truly announced himself to the F1 world by winning on his Red Bull Racing debut at the Spanish Grand Prix. To mark the anniversary, F1.com gathered the thoughts of several people involved that day \u2013 from journalists to drivers \u2013 for a special trip down memory lane\u2026<\/p>\n
Red Bull\u2019s dramatic seat swap<\/p>\n
Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s F1 adventure started in 2015 when, fresh from a trophy-filled karting career and an eye-catching sole European F3 season, Red Bull<\/a> signed him for their junior outfit Toro Rosso<\/a> \u2013 beating rivals Mercedes<\/a> to a deal. He immediately showed his pace and was soon breaking records, becoming the youngest points-scorer in F1 history \u2013 aged 17 years and 180 days \u2013 in only his second race at the Malaysian Grand Prix, and ending that rookie term with almost 50 points to his name.<\/p>\n Red Bull kept Verstappen at Toro Rosso for the start of the 2016 campaign, but talk of a potential promotion to the senior team was swirling around the paddock. After just four rounds, those rumours became concrete, with Daniil Kvyat<\/a> demoted following a difficult race on home soil in Russia, and Verstappen promoted to become Daniel Ricciardo<\/a>\u2019s new team mate. And so, from the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Verstappen was a fully-fledged Red Bull driver.<\/p>\n Lawrence Barretto, reporter: \u201cI was in my second season with Autosport working on-site as a reporter and I remember Kvyat\u2019s future at Red Bull being a talking point from as early as pre-season testing. Red Bull boss Christian Horner felt Kvyat wasn\u2019t performing well enough relative to his team mate Ricciardo, but this was also in the context of Verstappen making waves at their junior team Toro Rosso.<\/p>\n \u201cWith several teams sniffing around the Dutchman, including Mercedes, Red Bull knew they had to do something to lock Verstappen down. So, after Kvyat crashed into Sebastian Vettel<\/a> not once but twice in Russia \u2013 just a race after he scored a podium in China \u2013 Red Bull pulled the trigger and demoted him (they could do this because they sign drivers to the Red Bull family and can move them around their two F1 teams as they see fit) to free up a seat for Verstappen.<\/p>\n \u201cRed Bull upgraded Verstappen\u2019s contract in the process, preventing anyone else from snatching him for the short- to medium-term. It was tough on Kvyat, but Red Bull were looking at the bigger picture. They felt Verstappen was special (and he delivered on that with four titles for them), and unfortunately, Kvyat was collateral damage.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the press conference room being packed on Thursday, with Kvyat sat at the front with his new Toro Rosso team mate Carlos Sainz<\/a> to his right, and the man who had replaced him, Verstappen, to his left. I felt for him. He was clearly downbeat, and admitted it was a shock when Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko called him to tell him the news while he was watching Game of Thrones.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Jacques, F1 TV Lead Commentator: \u201cThe feeling in the paddock was interesting because there was universal acceptance that the swap was incredibly harsh on Kyvat, but there was also an inevitability to Verstappen\u2019s promotion. It seemed near certain Red Bull wanted to make the move at some point in the 2016 season, such were the glimmers of raw talent that Verstappen had shown in his first campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n Jolyon Palmer, Renault F1 driver: \u201cPre-weekend I felt a bit sorry for Kvyat with the sudden swap. I remember thinking it was harsh so early in the season. Red Bull hadn\u2019t been too competitive and Dany had been doing pretty acceptably overall, I think, and was on the podium just two races before. Obviously it was a great chance for Max, too, but as I was driving at the time I certainly wasn\u2019t dwelling much on Red Bull, and even Toro Rosso were too quick for Renault at that point in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n Hitting the ground running<\/p>\n With just 23 F1 races under his belt, Verstappen was now set to go up against a proven Grand Prix winner in Ricciardo, who had previously beaten four-time World Champion Vettel over the course of a season. Not that Verstappen showed any trepidation, though, by running close to Ricciardo\u2019s lap times through Friday practice and then giving his much more experienced team mate something to think about in Qualifying \u2013 the session ending with Ricciardo in P3 and Verstappen in P4, behind the dominant Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Nico Rosberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lawrence Barretto: \u201cOne of Verstappen\u2019s key strengths in his first season at Toro Rosso in 2015 was his ability to assimilate with the team very quickly and perform strongly relative to his team mate \u2013 but it was still something of a surprise to see him slip so seamlessly into the Red Bull mid-season and be a match for Ricciardo, whose star was high after he impressively defeated defending four-time World Champion team mate Vettel the year before.<\/p>\n \u201cVerstappen was on the money straight away in Friday practice and within two-tenths of a second of Ricciardo. I remember speaking to him after the sessions and noting how relaxed he was about it all. He was then brilliant in Qualifying, setting a pace quicker than Ricciardo in the first two parts before being usurped by the Australian.<\/p>\n \u201cNonetheless, fourth on the grid \u2013 one place behind Ricciardo and the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg, but ahead of the Ferraris \u2013 was still a stunning performance. It suitably impressed Red Bull, with boss Horner saying that his performance in those two days was already proof enough they had made the right call to switch him into the works team in place of Kvyat.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Jacques: \u201cIt might sound counterintuitive, but watching Verstappen both onboard and trackside looked like a step back from his very best Toro Rosso form. The Dutch driver didn\u2019t seem totally at one with the car, but he was still very quick, and while the teenager was clearly chasing things a bit, the stopwatch showed that he was close to new team mate Ricciardo straight away, which was really impressive. It is worth underlining how high Ricciardo\u2019s stock was after the 2014 and 2015 seasons \u2013 he was rated as a top three driver on the grid by many in the paddock.\u201d<\/p>\n David Tremayne, Hall of Fame F1 Journalist: \u201cOf course, we already knew that Max was something special. I think Joe Saward and I were in Japan when he was born, and declared to one another that with his genes \u2013 father Jos and kart racer Sophie Kumpen as his parents \u2013 he would be jolly fast if he ever took up racing. But the moment he got his hands on a competitive car, the youngest driver on the grid supplied his definition of the word in a sensational race.\u201d<\/p>\n Disaster for Mercedes, joy for Red Bull<\/p>\n While the Mercedes drivers were dominant in Qualifying, the situation was flipped on its head just a few corners into the Grand Prix. Having taken the lead at Turn 1, Rosberg subsequently lost power coming out of Turn 3 due to being in an incorrect engine mode, allowing Hamilton to get a run on him approaching Turn 4 \u2013 only for the Silver Arrows to dramatically collide and both end up in the gravel trap. That cleared a path for Ricciardo and Verstappen, who slotted into first and second over the fast-starting Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz and the Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lawrence Barretto: \u201cThere was collective gasp in the press room as Hamilton slid onto the grass and spun, collecting his Mercedes team mate Rosberg on the run down to Turn 4, and opening the door for the first non-Mercedes and non-Rosberg win of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cHamilton sat in his car, buried in the gravel, for what felt like an age. He then threw out his steering wheel with some force and stepped out of the car. Rosberg had been in the incorrect engine setting, which is why Hamilton was able to catch him so quickly and attempt a move, which Rosberg promptly shut off \u2013 hence the resulting collision.<\/p>\n \u201cThat left us with a straight fight between Red Bull and Ferrari<\/a> for the win. Initially, it looked like Ricciardo\u2019s to lose from the lead, but Verstappen was lurking in second. A decision by Red Bull to pull Ricciardo in early and put him on a three-stopper \u2013 which was predicted to be slower ahead of the race \u2013 dropped him out of contention and provided Verstappen with a chance to secure his first win.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Jacques: \u201cIn 2016 I was GP2\/GP3 Commentator, and my broadcasting duties would be done by lunch time on Sunday. During the Grand Prix in those days, I would sometimes be given tasks like scanning team radios for any information missed, but on this occasion there wasn\u2019t any production job for me, so I was free to go and watch the racing trackside.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the start I chose the hill at Turns 7 and 8, where there was an enormous crowd opposite on the grass banking. When the Mercedes pair crashed into each other on the first lap, the whole of the crowd rose as one. Mercedes had dominated F1 so much since 2014 that the idea of a non-Mercedes winner was incredible, and the crowd knew they were watching something special.\u201d<\/p>\n Split strategies favour Verstappen<\/p>\n As the race developed, and as touched on above, Red Bull gave Ricciardo and Verstappen different strategies \u2013 going for the more aggressive three-stop approach with the Australian, and a more conventional two-stop plan with the Dutchman. It was the latter strategy that proved to be the quickest, promoting Verstappen to the lead of the race over fellow two-stopper Raikkonen, with the three-stopping Vettel and Ricciardo circulating in third and fourth.<\/p>\n While the pit stops worked out in his favour, Verstappen brilliantly dealt with two key challenges to capitalise on the situation: keeping his tyres alive across each stint and, as the chequered flag approached, managing to fend off Raikkonen behind him \u2013 something he ultimately achieved by six-tenths of a second. It was the culmination of a supreme debut weekend at Red Bull that saw Verstappen become F1\u2019s youngest race winner at 18 years, seven months and 15 days old, smashing Vettel\u2019s previous record (21 years, two months and 11 days).<\/p>\n Lawrence Barretto: \u201cVerstappen was superb with his car placement and coaxing off the tyres, so even when Raikkonen got within DRS (Drag Reduction System) range and he started suffering a bit of cramp, the Red Bull racer was unperturbed. He simply managed the gap on a track where he knew it was tough to overtake.<\/p>\n \u201cI even remember Verstappen saying on team radio, \u2018Let him catch up\u2019, so confident was he that he had everything in hand. It was a sign of what was to come and further confirmation that Red Bull\u2019s bold move to bring him in was the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Jacques: \u201cIt was clear watching trackside that Vettel and Ricciardo had been put on the more favourable strategy, at least on paper! Both looked very comfortable behind the wheel, but the gap wasn\u2019t closing quickly enough, so it was a battle of the second cars for victory. Verstappen continued to be chasing fluidity in new machinery but somehow was holding Raikkonen at bay.<\/p>\n \u201cI slowly walked around the turns that comprise the second half of the lap, and the mood of the crowd progressed from a babble of murmurs to a desire to witness history. By the end, Verstappen had the full support of the grandstands. It was clear he was using so much more of the road than Raikkonen, but he was withstanding the pressure of the champion and suddenly the shock result began to look likely. With a few laps to go I decided to bolt for the paddock, because an 18-year-old was going to win a Grand Prix.\u201d<\/p>\n Jolyon Palmer: \u201cI remember being told of the Mercedes crash by my engineer on the team radio as we went under the Safety Car and thinking that\u2019s absolutely massive, nobody crashes into T4 at Barca, what\u2019s gone on there? But beyond that I didn\u2019t know much about the front of the race, particularly as the first car to lap me on that day was Danny Ric, who was leading at the time on his three-stopper, so I didn\u2019t actually clock that Max was leading the Grand Prix until late on.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously on hearing he\u2019d won I thought that\u2019s unbelievably impressive and going to be a huge story for the media afterwards, but also with the Mercedes drivers out it wasn\u2019t necessarily a huge shock. Between Mercedes having some sort of catastrophe at the front and Max having a debut win, I was confident nobody would care about mine and Kevin Magnussen\u2019s intra-team scrap<\/a> for 13th in the media pen afterwards, though!\u201d<\/p>\n David Tremayne: \u201cAs lap after lap the kid held off the veteran no matter what Kimi tried, it reminded me of the first time Fernando Alonso<\/a> contained Michael Schumacher<\/a> at Imola in 2005, or when Lewis held off Fernando at Indianapolis two years later. This time there was never a moment when any of the top four could relax, let alone the spectators who were on the edge of their seats.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that Max never put a wheel wrong made it crystal clear that we had just watched one of the next greats come of age. What a buzz that was! 0.616s was the final margin of victory, but it might as well have been six minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Verstappen\u2019s winning run begins<\/p>\n Verstappen\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix triumph was the latest step in an already rapid rise. While there would be some tricky moments to navigate in the races and years ahead, the youngster worked through them and underlined his status as one of F1\u2019s most exciting talents. Seemingly going from strength to strength, he now boasts a huge number of records, having earned 48 pole positions, 71 Grand Prix victories, 127 podium finishes, almost 3,500 points and four world titles across 237 starts.<\/p>\n