The young Dutch driver has made a big splash in Formula 1 series since his debut in 2015 – his appearance on the stage has become one of the most discussed topics in the press and among the fans. Being the youngest driver to start the Grand Prix, on his second season he swapped the places with Daniil Kvyat, which led to his first race win in the career and also to achieving the title of the youngest Grand Prix winner in Formula 1 history.

During the next two seasons Max has impressed everyone a lot, both in a positive and in a negative way though. Some may say he is dangerous and goes against the rules, his overtake moves are rather risky, however he has 5 race wins and 22 podiums in his pocket at the moment. Yes, Verstappen is a controversial person, he makes the fans watch racing with their mouths open and has a sharp tongue to answer to everyone who criticizes him.

But then, there is one thing about him that we know for sure – he fears no one and the team is standing on his side. Isn’t it a serious claim to victory?

After the USA Grand Prix in 2018 these talks grew louder: let’s recon Lewis Hamilton’s wheel-to-wheel battle with Max that ended up with Briton missing out the opportunity to become a five-time world champion a bit earlier than it eventually happened. Both Hamilton and Vettel highlighted that Verstappen is ready to fight them in the season of 2019; what we hear today is Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stating that their senior driver “has all the skills to take on Lewis or Sebastian or whoever it is”.

“I don't think he lacks anything to take those guys on and he's probably the driver they fear the most.”  he added. Promising enough, we should say.

But still, even if it looks so bright from the one side, there’s always another one, filled with doubts, probabilities and luck. Some of the future changes can affect Max’s chances to join the leaders’ fight:

• Honda engines

After all the troubles Honda faced in F1 working with McLaren and Toro Rosso, it’s hard to believe the manufacture will finally achieve the required level of reliability to be able to win races. Working on simulator, Max Verstappen has already said that he didn’t think the team could “match Ferrari and Mercedes straight away in terms of power”, but also noted that “Honda is giving everything to get there as quickly as possible”.

• Pierre Gasly

Well, it’s no secret that Pierre will probably be on a position of the second driver in a team, especially joining Max that has already won the respect of the bosses. However, the sports have earlier witnessed the cases when a young rookie became a serious danger for the more experienced driver, so we would advise you not to write Gasly off that soon.