“I like this guy” – Max Verstappen left his Toro Rosso race engineer awestruck in his first official tryst with a Formula 1 car

“I like this guy” – Xevi Pujolar goes down the memory lane to recount how impressive Max Verstappen was in his first test for Toro Rosso.

Max Verstappen had a ‘boom’ test debut for Toro Rosso, recalls his then-race engineer Xevi Pujolar.

Pujolar, now with Alfa Romeo, was incredibly impressed with the 16-year-old, who was lapping times almost on par with senior teammate Daniil Kyvat during the practice sessions.

From that to being a world champion at the age of 24, it has been an impressive upwards trajectory for the Dutchman.

The story of Max Verstappen’s first outing in an F1 car

“Seven years ago we did a 148-lap test at the Adria circuit in Italy, over 500km in total with the 2012 STR7.

“Even then, he went very fast. I also remember for most of that day the asphalt was wet, especially in the morning. And for a rookie driver, it’s never the best thing to be in a single-seater on a track as treacherous as that one.

“But he mastered the car in a frightening way.

“Then he got on track at Suzuka and when I saw the times in the first sector of FP1, I said to myself ‘I like this guy’.

“A few months earlier, we had taken him to Spa so he could better understand the dynamics of a team. Then after Japan, we did all the winter testing before the 2015 debut.

“In Belgium, the way he studied the details of the track, where he could pass and where not, left us very surprised. He was analysing everything, things others couldn’t even imagine, even aspects related to other drivers on the track.

“I noticed in him the same way Jos prepared for races. Things I had never seen in other drivers. An impressive dedication that I have not seen in anyone else in my career.”

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