Tost ignored 'experts': 'I said: but not for Max Verstappen'

"I remember it well: wet track, it was raining. As you know, a round on the Norisring is short: it doesn't take a minute. Yet Max was one or two seconds faster than the rest," Tost remembers. Soon after that there was a telephone conversation with Marko. "Helmut and I are, of course, always in contact about these matters, we discuss the operations of young drivers in detail. It was clear to me that I wanted Max in our car, as a driver and not as a test driver."

And so it happened. In 2015, Verstappen made his debut in Formula 1 together with Carlos Sainz.

"Many 'experts' said it was far too early. To which I said: but not for Max Verstappen. Because he is not a passenger in the car, as you often see with newcomers, but he drives the car. How he controlled the car, who controlled it completely... Extraordinary," Tost said to Formule 1 Magazine.