Max Verstappen will be F1 driver with 17

[Manoah2u]

It is going to be a image disaster for F1. He is schoolboy age. How can F1 be marketed to the man in the street as a he-man sport if a schoolboy can do it? The team sponsors have a marketing event for their important clients & a schoolboy pitches as the chief attraction. Sponsors will have second thoughts. What happens if he does well?

if he does bad it'll be his career down the drain, if he succeeds F1 will be seen as a joke where any kids who has driven a gocart can just jump in

the chances of him doing bad probably don't outweigh the chances of him actually performing....dozens and dozens of potential racers and this guy gets a seat......that doesn't just happen for a reason. It's not like he is a paydriver that brings a couple of billions to some fumbling team.

IF he indeed doesn't live up to the 'hype', well, that'll be it then and he'll be another Alguersuari, Buemi, whatever.
Let's take Magnussen for example; hyped up, got a great chance, started soundly, and.......yes. we kinda forgot about this guy and he's still driving!

If he wins he won't be a friggin joke, he'll be a friggin hero. It shows this guy has incredible potential, if F1 was really 'that easy' there would be dozens of straight-out-of-gocart racers. There's a reason there arent.
The only reason Max is entering F1 is his extraordinary talent. Simply put, as early as a gocart driver first formula 3 season has more potential and talent than experienced GP2 racers.

So what 'should' happen? Only out of GP2? Come on we have crashtor maldonado that drove for YEARS in GP2. Did he 'earn' to enter f1? no he didn't he's a loonatic that had a monaco ban and only is in F1 because of $$$$$$.
What about Di Resta? Out of DTM "experienced" what did he do? Nothin. Zilch.

So there is zero guarantee. Experience and age don't say that much at all. Enough examples of 'experienced' step-by-step drivers that succeed into F1, and enough examples of drivers that never get into f1.
Bruno Senna.....seemed to hold potential.....perhaps had potential.....but it didn't happen.
How about or experienced driver 'Kovalainen'........where is he now?
And the lotus test driver that got scr*wed over the choice on kova......where is he now?

In the end it's simple......Some 17 year old shows enough potential and talent to be given a F1 seat in a worthy F1 team, straight pass any 'development programme'. Wasn't even part of the RedBull young driver programme. Imagine all the politics involved there and angry heads there, still Helmut decided it would be worth all that fuzz and handle this guy a F1 seat.

Kvyat was judged even before he got close to an F1 car, surely shut the critics straight up. I sense this Max Verstappen will do just that. Despite not expecting such a thing, I hope he'll actually do 2 victories in a toro rosso in 2015. That'll show some.

Vettel was magnificent with the EBD and double (and flexi) floors. That period has ended, and i'm not seeing him stepping up to the game again to be honest. RedBull will be eyeing the second run with somebody else. Ricciardo surely is doing amazing, but if anything, RedBull can do it all over again with Verstappen; youngest driver, youngest winner, youngest polesitter, youngest champion.

[Andres125sx]

Manoah2u, IMHO you´re mixing experience and talent as if they would be the same

I think nobody said Max has no talent, but he has no experience. There´re many experienced drivers who didn´t succed, obviously, but they didn´t cause stupid crashes either. There have been experienced drivers causing stupid crashes, but that´s due to their character, that character we all love when don´t going too far. I mean, aggressiveness.

But I think this is a different debate. Aggressiveness is a must for racing so you can´t discard a driver because he´s aggressive. But lack of experience is not a must and is easily solved, just wait some seassons

When Alguersuari became youngest driver ever at the age of 19 I was thinking the same, is he too young?. Recently Carlos Sainz jr said he´s not in a hurry, he´s too young, and I agreed with him (even when I´m sure those were his father´s words). Now Max will break Jaime´s record by a huge margin, 2 years. And at that age 2 years are a huge difference. With 17 you´re a child

Is that good for the driver and for F1?

I´m not sure if I should be talking about maturity better than experience, probably both are important. I know Max is fast but when you´re young you´re a bit reckless and if you add very little experience that could be a dangerous mix, no matter how much talent you have. Unconsciousness may be good for racing, but only if you´re not the driver he´s trying to overtake...

[notsofast]

Didn't Michael Schumacher once say that karting was the best preparation for his own F1 career, more so than any other kind of racing series?

[George-Jung]

[adrianjordan]

J. Villeneuve

I think he did alright...I mean he did win the WDC with Williams...

[Jasmine]

Publicity is a good reason. Youngest driver on the grid - Red bull. Red bull will come to your mind when you hear the word youngest driver.

But, I think just let them do what they want. If they fail, at least they learn their lesson, no more employing little kids with only a year of experience. If they succeed, then goodbye f1, hello kids' single seater championship

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Publicity is a good reason. Youngest driver on the grid - Red bull. Red bull will come to your mind when you hear the word youngest driver.

But, I think just let them do what they want. If they fail, at least they learn their lesson, no more employing little kids with only a year of experience. If they succeed, then goodbye f1, hello kids' single seater championship

If he succeed, it proves he is a special talent, nothing more. Helmut Marko and Mateschitz don't give every driver a F1 seat, they have seen something special.