Daniil Kvyat’s preparations for the opening race of the 2015 Formula One season next March are likely to be a surreal experience for the Toro Rosso driver.
The Russian, who made his F1 debut this year and is only 20 years of age, will be, in effect, the veteran of the Italian team’s drivers line-up.
His teammate next season, Max Verstappen, will be only 17 years old when the season begins. The September-born is currently 16 years of age.
The calendar for next season is yet to be published by the FIA, motorsport’s ruling body, but that first race is likely to be on the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia.
Whenever and wherever the race is, Verstappen, who is part of Red Bull Racing’s junior driver programme, will that day emphatically break the record for the youngest driver to race in F1.
Jaime Alguersuari, who was 19 years, four months and three days old when he first raced for Toro Rosso in 2009, is the youngest driver to have raced in F1.
Verstappen will replace Jean-Eric Vergne, who is being dropped at the end of the season after three years in the Red Bull scheme.
On the surface this seems tough on Vergne, 24, who ran as high as second in the Hungarian Grand Prix last month before falling back to finish ninth.
But after 50 races in a midfield car and only a sixth-place finish in Canada in 2013 as a best result, the decision has been made to give youth a chance again. Toro Rosso is the sister team of Red Bull and has been a proving ground for the drivers of their racing programme to see if they can cut it in F1.
Current Red Bull drivers, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, raced for Toro Rosso before graduating to the team who have won the constructors’ title for the past four years.
Drivers who have not impressed sufficiently at Toro Rosso have found their F1 experience ending quickly, as Scott Speed, Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and Vergne can attest.
So the pressure and expectation will be on Verstappen to step up, and quickly. But the Dutch teenager – whose father Jos raced in F1 between 1994 and 2003 and started in 106 races – will be confident he can.
He only drove his first single seater, a Formula Renault car, last October, but has impressed in the European Formula 3 series this year, winning eight out of 27 races to be second in the standings in the championship.
He signed for the Red Bull programme this month and, clearly, the Austrian team’s management have liked enough what they have seen to pitch him straight into the top echelon of motorsport.
The disadvantage to the move is that he is missing out on gaining more race-craft experience by leapfrogging both GP2 and GP3, the support and feeder series to F1.
GP2, from which Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado, among others, graduated to F1, use reverse grids, which means that even if a driver is front-runner, there will be races when drivers will be in the pack at race starts, will have to overtake cars, and will have to be mindful of surrounding traffic.
The lack of testing in F1, because of the cost-cutting regulations, will weigh against Verstappen gaining experience in the F1 cars, but the teenager is certain to do at least one Friday morning practice session test on a grand prix weekend before the season is over.
Simulators will give Verstappen plenty of laps away from the track, but time will be needed to gauge the effect the high G-Forces and pressures of racing a high-powered F1 car will have on the teenager.
The age of F1 drivers has gradually reduced in recent times.
When Jos Verstappen made his debut with Benetton in 1994 at Brazil at the age of 22, he was the second-youngest driver on the grid, with only four drivers under 25 competing.
At present in F1 there are eight drivers under the age of 25, more than a third of the field, and that is only going to increase with the arrival of Verstappen.
The prevailing theme in modern F1 is that if you are talented enough you are good enough, regardless of age.
It did world champions Vettel and Fernando Alonso no harm to start as teenagers, although neither was as young as Verstappen.
The teenager’s inclusion on the grid could also be a positive for a series that has lost television viewers in the past 18 months and has recently acknowledged it needs to be better at engaging with social media and younger audiences.
Having someone for younger fans to identify with who is tussling wheel-to-wheel with some of the best drivers in the world could prove a catalyst for a revival in interest in the sport.
It is a brave move by Toro Rosso, but as to whether making Verstappen the fastest teenager in F1 will be an inspired decision or not, only time will tell.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
VERSTAPPEN ALLAYS RISK FACTOR
Max Verstappen has denied it is dangerous for him to become a Formula One driver. The teenager has been signed by Toro Rosso for the 2015 season and will be 17 by the time he makes his debut, making him the youngest driver to compete in F1. He told the BBC: “I’m not that worried about it. The cars are really safe. I think it’s more dangerous to bike through a big city than race in an F1 car.” The Dutch racer is moving from British Formula 3 and said: “I think the biggest step I had was karting to F3. I think F3 to F1 will be a smaller step.” Franz Tost, the team principal, said: “We consider Max to be one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation.”
Follow us on Twitter at SprtNationalUAE