Macau Grand Prix: 10 years since a teenage Max Verstappen wowed crowds in casino city
Races return for 71st year on notoriously tough street circuit known as a proving ground for young talent
The Macau Grand Prix, back for its 71st edition this weekend, is renowned as the proving ground for young motorsport talent and exactly 10 years ago the eyes of the world were on a teenage Max Verstappen as he arrived in the southern Chinese city.
The young flying Dutchman was already being tipped as a Formula One world champion of the future when he strapped himself into an F3 car to take on the treacherous Guia Circuit in November 2014.
He had one aim in mind, to emulate the F3 victories of his heroes Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, who had conquered the 6.2km (3.85 miles) of narrow, unforgiving city street track – one of the greatest challenges in motorsport.
Signed a few months earlier by Red Bull’s junior team, Verstappen had been guaranteed a 2015 Toro Rosso Formula One seat after only a single season in the European F3 Championship.
He won 10 out of 33 races in F3, including an unprecedented six in a row, with 27 of them, incredibly, taking place before his 17th birthday.
“It’s definitely unheard of what Verstappen did that year,” motor racing expert Mattias Persson told AFP in the Macau paddock. “That 2014 season, I think it’s one of the stand-out performances that I’ve ever seen in motorsport.”
