Race driver Doornbos on F1-driver Verstappen: “Max is in a league of his own”

Published on 04 May 2015 by Mike Motilall

Robert Doornbos, being a Sport1 analyst, has a front row seat every time Max Verstappen is showing his skills on circuits all around the world. The channel’s choice is justifiable, given the fact of the driver’s impressive resume in motorsports. With his know how he is able to put a race in a right perspective. The 33-year-old Rotterdam resident, has driven for Formula 1-teams as Jordan, Midland, Minardi and Red Bull Racing, has won races in the Champcar World Series and was numerous years active in the IndyCar and A1GP.

There aren’t many around that can give a better view, as an insider, on the performance of the current Dutch F1-star. All the more reason for Verstappen.nl to give race driver Doornbos a third degree on race driver Max Verstappen. On topics like talent, racing and dealing with disappointments.

The Dutch have an expression and one thing the former F1-driver is adamant about, is his opinion on how fast Verstappen made it to the pinnacle of motorsports: “If it is good, it will come quickly. Max has proven that. He obviously was ready. I have known him for a couple of years now, way back since his karting days. The things I saw him do in Formula 3, were so impressive. That was a competitive field, but from the word go, he was in the front and winning races. By then you have set the standard for everyone. And someone like Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing’s talent scout, doesn’t pick someone randomly. He noticed that in the Formula 3, right off the bat, Max was constant and fast. They now have a diamond in the rough, all they need to do is to polish it.” The age of the youngster, according to Doornbos, isn’t representative for what he is demonstrating. “I think he is very mature for his age. I made my debut at twenty-one, and I found myself very young then. But seventeen and already so mature: hats off to him. Of course there is still a lot to learn, as we saw in Bahrain. It cannot always go well. But the things he has already shown us, were super impressive.”

As a seasoned driver Doornbos sees other things in Max than fans with less motorsports experience. What is so special about the way Max drives, seen through the eyes of another driver? “The driving takes no effort. When he is in the car, there are so many things to deal with: a Formula 1-car has seventy different setting on the steering wheel, you have to communicate with the pit wall, you have to overtake, you have to take care of your tyres, etc. But driving is second nature for Max. This leaves him plenty of room during driving to really feel the car. To feel how the setup is working and relaying this back to the team. There are also guys out there, who only have a limited skill set and have to work so hard just to keep the car on the tarmac, and because of that they lose so much. Max doesn’t have that. He has, to what I can see, a lot of talent and is able to maximize it in this way.”

“His talent is shown by the race lines he takes. You can clearly see they are by the book. Karting does help your race skills, but that doesn’t make you a good race driver. The way he overtook others in Malaysia, from the outside, then inside and back to the outside again, was just text book! When I am watching, I my mind, I am on board with him and I am thinking along with him: I would also make him go round, then back in and brake. He is doing what every racer feels.”

This does not mean that there are no surprises for Doornbos in Max’ racing. “His overtake on Ericsson in China was very surprising, he came from quite a distance. I didn’t see that coming, and neither did Ericsson nor a lot of others. It took him so off guard, it seemed that he put his car in reverse." Would Doornbos have dared to do the same? “He really came from a quite a distance. Had you done that to someone else, it could have ended in tears. A Maldonado e.g., would have definitely not been so polite as Ericsson.” Nevertheless, the Champcar race winner is quite sure that the Swede in his Sauber never expected Max to be there. “The thing you do when someone is on your tail, is take a quick look in the mirrors. You don’t want to turn your whole head to look in the mirrors, because your pursuer sees that. This will tell him that he is making you nervous. So you take a quick look and choose a brake point. I think Ericsson, emerging from the previous corner, took a quick look and thought ‘oh, he is still far behind of me’. And then Max pounced! Those things do surprise me and that is what you want to see. That is what separates Max from the rest.”

Robert Doornbos’ race career isn’t one that has been dotted with that many technical mishaps, yet, like no other he knows what Max is feeling, as his Renault engine has failed him more than once. “It remains a technical sport. And everything needs to work well together in order to win or at least end in a successful position. I never witnessed that in Formula 1 engines were popping, except in test sessions maybe. But I did experience in Toronto a gearbox failure in Indycar when I was running in a top spot. I’d had it then! I guess that’s how Max must have felt: points in sight and then dropping out. That’s a real drama. I would have smashed my helmet in a thousand pieces, at least I would have tried to, but actually you need to just get up and move on. You need to get yourself ready for the next race and try again. That’s what you learn as a professional athlete: dealing with disappointments.”

In his role as an analyst at Sport1, he is very happy with the arrival of Max in Formula 1. “Yes, thank God Max is here, because we now have a dedicated race channel at Sport1. Although we are a small team, we make a rather nice preview and after show. Olav also does a great job. You can notice in everything that Formula 1 is alive again in the Netherlands. Our objective is to provide more for our viewers.”