On the face of it, it doesn’t look good. Six retirements from 12 races, with four of the DNFs put down to mechanical faults. He’s 65 points behind his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who by comparison has had only two of his races brought to a premature end through mechanical failures. 2017, it seems, is a bit of a write-off for Max Verstappen. He would have never have thought that in his second year at the Red Bull senior team he would’ve only achieved one podium at the end of the European leg of the season.
Still, it’s not as bad as it could be. He’s sixth in the championship despite only reaching the chequered flag at half the grand prix so far. When he has finished he’s been very consistent and never come home outside of the top five. Without his collection of DNFs there’s no doubt that Verstappen would be up there with Ricciardo in the points.
After the latest, and perhaps greatest, disappointment at Spa both Max and father Jos Verstappen expressed their frustration at the situation. While it is easy, especially when you’re viewed as the most exciting talent of your generation, to make vague threats about the team needing to improve, 2017 is an opportunity that Verstappen has never yet encountered in his single-seater career. A chance to prove his maturity when things aren’t going in his favour.
Verstappen’s phenomenal career has meant that he hasn’t had the baptism of fire that so many other drivers suffer through. In fact, when questioned about bad luck the young Dutchman had to refer as far back as his time in karts to find examples of when he last had such an unfortunate year. Verstappen is young and super-talented with the financial backing and guidance of an ex-F1 driver father behind him. His teenage ascension to F1 is the stuff of myth and under the ample wings of Red Bull he hasn’t had to do his time with a backmarker team.
Other greats have been through a similar thing, encountering unreliability or simply a drop in their own form after their first flash of brilliance. Michael Schumacher struggled through mechanical issues when he first moved to Ferrari, fresh from his championship wins at Benetton. More recently both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel went through periods where the car just wasn’t working for them. These drivers, while all prodigious talents, have come out as more rounded drivers after experiencing some hardship.
At least Verstappen can be thankful that he’s been stricken with bad luck in a year where Red Bull doesn’t have the pace to allow him to fight for the championship. Ricciardo’s win in Azerbaijan came under strange circumstances and on the whole the team is very much outclassed by Mercedes and Ferrari. He may be missing out on points and a chance to take the battle to his team-mate, but realistically there’s not much he could achieve with the RB13.
2017 will do much to teach Verstappen patience and 2018 will be all the sweeter for the season of character building.
