Younger and younger hands at the wheel in F1

Max Verstappen, a 17-year-old Belgian driver for Toro Rosso who competed in his third career Formula One event this morning in China, is the youngest driver to race in the series.
Max Verstappen, a 17-year-old Belgian driver for Toro Rosso who competed in his third career Formula One event this morning in China, is the youngest driver to race in the series.

If Formula One started a technical revolution last season with quieter, more efficient hybrid engines, this season the series appears to be revolutionizing the notion of what it takes to be a driver.

The early history of Grand Prix racing was about men in their 30s and 40s mastering hulking, high-horsepower machines and living a glamorous life between races. Juan Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest drivers, won the last of his five world titles in 1957 at age 46.

But the technological evolution of the racing cars into less-brutal, aerodynamics- and electronics-driven cars has brought with it the rise of younger drivers and a different style behind the wheel.

Lewis Hamilton, 30, may be the reigning world champion and leader of the series again this year, but there is a clear trend at the pinnacle of motor racing -- one that may be threatening for Hamilton and others of his generation -- toward teenage drivers.

Only six of the 20 drivers this season are older than 30. Two drivers are 20, and one is 22. And the Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen, who started his third race at the Chinese Grand Prix early Sunday morning, is 17.

When Verstappen finished the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago in seventh place -- after qualifying sixth -- he was not only the youngest driver to race in the series, but also the youngest to score points. He is more than two years younger than the Russian driver Daniil Kvyat was when he scored points last year at 19. It has been noted that Verstappen, whose parents are Belgian and Dutch, is too young to obtain a driver's license in either of his home countries.

Kvyat, now 20 and driving for Red Bull, finished the Malaysian Grand Prix right behind Verstappen, while Verstappen's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., also 20, finished ninth, and Felipe Nasr, a 22-year-old driver for the Sauber team, finished 12th. In Australia, Nasr had finished fifth, the best result ever for a Brazilian driver in his debut Formula One race.

Before Verstappen, only nine teenagers had raced in Formula One, all at age 19. Sebastian Vettel, now a four-time world champion, was one of them. Vettel is the only other driver to have scored points as a teenager in Formula One: He finished eighth, at 19, in his debut at the 2007 U.S. Grand Prix.

Today, the physical burdens of heavy steering, brutal gearshifts and low engine drivability are a thing of the past. Driving the modern cars is almost like playing a video game. What remains, though, is the need for mental strength to perform at the highest level, with the pressures of driving against the world's best drivers, in the best cars, before millions of television viewers.

But Felipe Massa, who started in the series in 2002 at age 20, praised his compatriot Nasr.

"For his first race in Formula One, he did everything like a mature driver," Massa said. "He was really consistent, the way he was pushing throughout the whole race."

Massa compared the performance to his own debut, in which he said he was knocked out by his teammate at the first corner. But in his day, debuts at such a young age were often deemed to be too early. Massa made many mistakes, so he became a test driver in his second season, learning his craft and maturing.

But Jos Verstappen, Max's father and a former Formula One driver, disagreed with that approach.

"A driver has to be strong in his mind anyway to survive in this sport," said Jos Verstappen, who was involved in a spectacular accident in his first race in the series at age 22 in 1994. "And if he is mentally not ready at 17, then he is also not ready at 20."

Some critics have suggested that by having teenagers race rather than mature men, Formula One is making the cars and the racing seem less challenging. But the performance of the younger drivers so far this year has spiced up a show that many expect may again be dominated by one team, Mercedes.

The youthful excitement is exactly what the series' promoters want. That image is crucial for the Red Bull energy drink company, whose two teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, are home to the three youngest drivers.

"Red Bull is aware that teenagers and young people look at their parents drinking Red Bull, and so they associate the drink with their parents' generation," said Nav Sidhu, a founding director of Sidhu & Simon Communications, a public relations and sponsorship activation agency with extensive experience in Formula One. "Having a teenager in the series and associated with the drink can change that perception."

Formula One has also noted that its fan base is aging, with younger people more occupied with distractions like video games than with racing cars. But the objective for team directors and engineers is still to win races, so seeking the best drivers, whatever their age, is paramount. It is too early in the season to know whether the current crop of younger drivers will meet that goal now or require further experience.

Despite the fine results, each driver made errors in Malaysia. Kvyat, who moved to Red Bull this year after a year at Red Bull's junior Toro Rosso team, has appeared less sure of himself than he was last year. In Malaysia, as Kvyat's teammate Daniel Ricciardo, 25, was told by the team to let Kvyat pass, since the Russian was faster, Kvyat made an error that bore a hint of impatience, and he spun out before regaining control and finishing the race.

Max Verstappen nearly ended his race when he drove over the grass heading into the pit lane. Nasr ruined both his and Kimi Raikkonen's race early on when he came into contact with Raikkonen, a Ferrari driver.

"These boys have got the speed," said Martin Brundle, a former Formula One driver and now a commentator on British television. "They've just got to get some experience."

At Toro Rosso, while Sainz is still an unproven rookie, his résumé looks like a veteran's compared with that of Verstappen. While Verstappen spent one season racing cars, and did not even win his championship, Sainz has spent five seasons in car racing and won two titles.

That is typical of today's young drivers, who start top-level go-karting competitions at age 10 or younger, then do several years of car racing before starting in Formula One. That means that they often have as much pure racing experience as their predecessors in the early years of Grand Prix racing had in their 30s.

It remains to be seen whether Formula One will lose some of its appeal because the younger drivers give the impression that elite racing is easy. In response to some alarm from teams and fans when Toro Rosso hired Verstappen, the International Automobile Federation, the series' governing body, set a minimum age requirement of 18 for drivers to obtain the obligatory license to drive in the series starting next year.

But now that the younger drivers have begun to show their skill and maturity, Helmut Marko, who hires the drivers for Red Bull, said the new minimum age requirement was pointless.

"It is sad that now a regulation is coming in that would have deprived both Max and Carlos of the license they need," he said.

Sports on 04/12/2015

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