The young flying Dutchman was already being tipped as a Formula 1 world champion of the future when 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 1 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 on Friday.
“That 2014 season, I think it’s one of the standout performances that I’ve ever seen in motorsport.”
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