Jos Verstappen and Franz Tost delighted after FP1

Published on 03 October 2014 by Stefan Meens

Scuderia Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost and former F1 ace Jos Verstappen have praised Max Verstappen’s F1 race weekend debut. The Dutch youngster participated in free practice 1 of the Japanese round of the Formula 1 World Championship at Suzuka on Friday morning. The Red Bull Junior impressed the paddock with a confident drive, which lead to P12 at the end of session.

For father Jos it was a challenge to keep calm when the session kicked off: “When he left the pit box for the first time, I was nervous. It’s his first time in the STR9 and, on top of that, Suzuka is a challenging track, especially the first sector. But Max adapted quickly to the situation. It is clear for everyone he’s done a terrific job.”

Jos continues: “The most important thing to me was that Max kept driving and clocked as many laps as possible. Apart from that, I think he has showed more than enough skill and talent. He told me he could have gone faster but he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks”, reveals Jos. “If you look at the way Max deals with driving an F1 car and with everything around it, it looks like he’s been around the paddock for a while. He’s done extremely well so I’m happy for him and very proud. And it’s not just me, everyone within Toro Rosso is super positive and very impressed.”

"Suzuka is difficult track to master. For that exact reason we gave him the chance to drive here and he’s done very well”, says Scuderia Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost. “He completed 22 laps and was able to learn the track so next year he’ll be quick from the start, here at Suzuka. Similar to today, Max will drive free practice 1 in the US, Brazil and Abu Dhabi to further prepare for 2015. He won’t be around next week at the Russian Grand Prix as he is committed to the European Formula 3 race at Imola.”