Verstappen names his most difficult season in F1 as he’s quizzed on advice he’d give his younger self

Max Verstappen has singled out the start of the 2018 season as his most difficult campaign so far in Formula 1, though the Dutchman conceded that he is also grateful to have learned from the mistakes he made in the past.

After making his debut at 17 years old for Toro Rosso in 2015, Verstappen was promoted to the main Red Bull outfit following the opening four races of 2016 and promptly won on his debut for the squad in Barcelona.

While he scored another two victories towards the end of 2017, the beginning of the 2018 championship did not go entirely smoothly for the young driver, having been involved in an incident at each of the first six Grands Prix – including a collision with team mate Daniel Ricciardo in Azerbaijan.

Verstappen’s fortunes improved, however, as the campaign progressed, collecting wins in Austria and Mexico as well as ending the season with a total of 11 podiums.

Asked during an appearance on Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast about which season he felt he had learned the most from – or faced the most struggles in – Verstappen explained: “2018, the start – the first seven or eight races.

“[I was] making some mistakes myself and then you get into a negative spiral, you try to push even harder and it all just didn’t work out, and [I was] being really upset with myself.

“Then I had a turnaround in Montreal [topping all three practice sessions and ending the race in third], and I have to say I think from that day that’s really where it clicked.”

Pushed further on whether he could see the person he was going to develop into when he first arrived in F1, Verstappen answered: “No, because I don’t think about [that]. I don’t want to know, I’m not interested in it.”

The 28-year-old was also quizzed on the advice he would give his younger self, to which he responded: “Nothing. I would want him to make the same mistakes or go through the same tough times, good times, because if you know everything in advance it’s really boring, and you get lazy as well if you know everything in advance.

“[You learn from] the tough times, and you need them as well because you could tell someone, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that’, but sometimes actually making the mistake makes you not do it again.”