How Verstappen experienced the news of his switch to Red Bull Racing

It is exactly five years ago that Max Verstappen won his first Grand Prix, no Dutch Formula 1 fan will have missed that today. That victory came completely out of the blue. In many ways.

His coolness was evident in his first race for Red Bull Racing, as was his excellent defensive work against Kimi Raikkonen. To get to that position though, a few things had to fall into place. A week earlier nobody would have thought this was possible.

Verstappen did not believe father

Of course, Mercedes' double retirement helped Verstappen during the race, but his switch to Red Bull's A-team was also crucial. Because let's be honest, he would never have managed this in the Toro Rosso. It was a promotion that came completely out of the blue, even for Verstappen himself.

At the time, he was the first to hear it from his father, who called him awake with news that he might drive for Red Bull Racing next race. "I said, 'You're out of your mind, I drive for Toro Rosso, what are you talking about.' ' I didn't believe him, so he hung up again," Verstappen recounted In a Red Bull retrospective earlier this year.

Marko in style

When he was invited to lunch by Helmut Marko in Graz a few days later, something began to dawn on him, but an hour passed without anything worth mentioning being discussed. "I was wondering, why are we sitting here, he doesn't say anything. Then suddenly he said, 'Oh well, you're driving for Red Bull next week, so get ready to go to the factory in Milton Keynes to get a seat and you have to do a lot of driving in the simulator'."

Verstappen was perplexed by the way this was told to him. "It came out very spontaneously, like it was the most normal thing in the world," he said. It fits perfectly with the image people have of Helmut Marko. He is said to have told Daniil Kvyat, who had to swap places with Verstappen, the bad news with a phone call when the Russian was watching Game of Thrones.

For Verstappen, it was then a matter of performing under pressure. At least that's how he even experienced it. "Of course I wanted to show right there that I was capable of driving for a top team." Well, he did and five years later he's the odds-on favourite to oust Lewis Hamilton from the throne.