“He’s ready to win”- Felipe Massa believes Max Verstappen is ready to lift championship title after rocky start

Tanish Chachra | 26/11/2021
"I know what I have to do": Max Verstappen insists that he is feeling calm ahead of the final two rounds of the 2021 F1 Championship

Former F1 driver Felipe Massa believes Max Verstappen has matured immensely to gain prominence in the sport and will soon be an F1 champion.

Max Verstappen broke into the F1 scene with massive hype, and his talent reflected the reason behind it. However, he certainly made some unforced errors, which used to cost Red Bull.

But the team never laid any doubt in his abilities and kept giving him resources, as they believed he would be their future. Moreover, when he started in F1, Verstappen was still a teenager.

But now, at the age of 24, the Dutchman plays a pivotal role in Red Bull. Talking about him, Felipe Massa believes after that tumultuous start, Verstappen is now ready to win.

“I think maybe in his first two, three years, he was very inconsistent,” said Massa on the F1 Nation podcast.”He was really, really quick all the time, doing amazing races, but also doing some stupid mistakes, like closing the car on braking points, stupid things that were just causing him this impression that he’s not mature.”

Also read: Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko cites past races to explain Red Bull ace is likely to beat Lewis Hamilton in Saudi Arabia

Max Verstappen grew when there was no one even to challenge him

Usually, with every rising star, there is a leading figure who nourishes them. But after Ricciardo’s exit, there was no one for Verstappen to seek a mentor. Yet, he rose to be one of the best drivers on the grid.

“Maybe after the second part of the season, in his last year with Daniel [Ricciardo] in Red Bull, he just changed a little bit his maturity,” Massa added.

“He started to make a lot fewer mistakes, he started to respect a lot more the rules. Even the year after, when he didn’t have really a big competition in terms of a teammate, inside the team, I think he grew up massively.”

“Today, I think he’s really mature, quick, doing an amazing job, also no mistakes – so he’s ready to win.”

Also read: Schumacher thinks Mercedes’ ‘stable car’ will snub Red Bull sensation of his awaited championship glory

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Felipe Massa ferrari Max Verstappen Red Bull

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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