I always tell this story about last year when I drove in F1 for the first time.
It was on my favorite circuit, in the world champion’s car that Vettel would be driving in just a couple of hours
and I remember every turn of the first two laps and realizing that I had never driven them so fast before.
I was laughing on the inside and grinning from ear to ear. I love racing.
It’s an obsession that runs through my veins. I don’t think there is anything I could like more than this.
Saying you want to grow up to be an F1 driver when you’re 10
is a bit like a 3-year-old saying he wants to be an astronaut.
I wanted to be certain that he was doing it for himself.
At that age a kid might want to follow what his father has done,
and I wanted to be sure that if he raced karts or cars, it would be for real.
He has a real leadership with all the team.
Always pushing.
For me one of his strengths is the fact that he is so complete, not only driving fast.
In Russia and Hungary we had the typical issues you have in a season.
It’s impossible to win every race.
When Carlos was leading the championship, he had been told that
if he won it he was likely to become a Toro Rosso driver and suddenly a 16-year-old driver,
Max Verstappen, is announced as a new recruit and that shocked Carlos… and all of us.
After those two races people said that I could not handle the pressure and that the news
about Verstappen had affected me too much, that I was not the same.
But there are many more reasons why those results were not so good.
I'll remember what happened at Paul Ricard my whole life.
When I got there I was in a tremendous rage, thinking about all these people saying:
“He can’t handle the pressure, the Verstappen issue is getting to him. He’s not strong enough.”
When I got to Paul Richard, I said to myself: “Tomorrow is Saturday. Let’s do something big.”
I got pole position, I got the win and I silenced a lot of critics.
When the race finally ended, suddenly it hit me and I realized I had finally achieved my goal,
the goal I had set back in December.
And all the promises I had made to myself and to Red Bull.
I finally got to win the championship in Jerez. But I haven’t secured a Formula 1 seat yet.
Then suddenly there is a slight opportunity. A small door opens thanks to Vettel’s departure to Ferrari.
Kvyat is promoted to Red Bull Racing, and that leaves an empty seat at Toro Rosso.
And then two months pass without anyone saying anything.
The news about Verstappen was the hardest moment of the season,
but those two months were the second hardest.
When I saw the Toro Rosso in the press conference with the 55 and my name on it, I said to myself:
“I'm an F1 driver.
