Idk Whats Going On

Franz Tost: When we brought him to Formula 1, I remember back some of your colleagues came to me and said, "You are totally crazy. How can you take someone who doesn't even have a driver's license?" I said, "Sorry, I don't want to discuss this with you now. Come in 5 years, then we can discuss it." Yeah, because I got tired of defending our decision.

This unbelievable natural speed, you could see, ah, sometimes in Formula 3. I remember back this wet race at the Norisring, I thought Max was driving on a dry line. Yeah, because he was, I don't remember the times, I think it's 52–53 seconds per lap, and he was 2 seconds faster than the rest. This reminded me also when Michael Schumacher won a Formula Ford race at the Salzburgring in similar conditions and he was also every lap 2-3 seconds faster than the rest. Yeah, and then this is important for me. I want to see what a driver is doing in our car. we had done the test in Italy...

Adria, wasn't it?

In Adria, yeah, and he got immediately clear with the car. He adapted immediately to the speed, the brakes, everything. And this was the big advantage, or is the big advantage for Max. He does not have a problem with the speed. Other drivers need 10 laps, 20 laps, 100 laps, depends whether it's a learner or not, until they adapt to the speed, also the brakes and everything. Max was sitting in there and he had it under control, and that's very important. And then, we said, "Okay, he should do the free practice in Suzuka." I think was his first free practice. And then once more, one of the most difficult race tracks, he just went out and did his job without any problem. Then the second one was, I think, in São Paulo. I don't remember now exactly the number of the corner, 5 or 6? where he had the oversteering. He lost it a little bit, but he caught the car without any problem. He was not surprised by the speed, he had it under control. And that's decisive. This was really impressive: with so few number of laps, how he immediately got this speed.

He was 17 when he made his debut in Formula 1 in Australia. Did you have any reservations about what you were doing?

No, it was clear. He was 17, doesn't matter, this is just a figure on the birth calendar or whatever. He was racing already 10 years or 11 years, and that's decisive, because nowadays the young drivers start karting with six, seven years. And then, that's the next important factor: Max had Jos, his father, on his side. And you know Jos was a successful Formula 1 driver and he taught him everything. Of course there were also some highlights and some maybe difficult periods when Max didn't win, but he got through a fantastic school. You could see. if you told him something, he understood immediately what you meant, and he immediately went out with the car and tried it, whether it worked or not. He tried it and then he decided, "Yes, it's good" or "No, it's not good." And that's very important. Other drivers, they need 3-4 laps, he immediately... and this was really, really impressive.

You lost Max to Red Bull Racing midway through 2016. He wins his first race for that team. Were even you surprised?

- Lando Norris (admittedly doesn’t know what that is)

- Alex Albon (believes that Mexico is in the southern hemisphere)

- Isack Hadjar (admittedly doesn’t know what that is)

- Checo Perez (believes that Spain is in the southern hemisphere)

- Arvid Lindblad (asked if Brazil is in the southern hemisphere)

- Liam Lawson (asked if Argentina is in the southern hemisphere)