Felipe Massa believes Since making his debut in the sport in 2015, Max Verstappen has matured significantly.
Felipe Massa has praised Max Verstappen for becoming into a more “mature” driver in recent seasons, proclaiming him “ready to win.”
Verstappen debuted in Formula One with Toro Rosso in 2015, at 17, following only one year of single-seater racing.
While he set a fast pace from the start, numerous rivals questioned his racing strategy, prompting the introduction of the so-called ‘Verstappen rule’ to prevent moving while braking.
“I think maybe in his first two, three years, he was very inconsistent,” said Massa.
“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.”
“He started to respect the rules”
The turning point for Verstappen, according to Massa, was in 2018, when he recovered from a poor run of races to consistently place on the podium.
“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 less 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.”
In the championship standings, Verstappen leads Lewis Hamilton by eight points heading into the final two races of the season.
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