How Max Verstappen caused complete FIA rules reset

Max Verstappen may be a four-time F1 champion but once upon a time, he was a teenager that Red Bull chose to roll the dice on.

The Dutchman made history in 2015 as the youngest driver to ever compete in an F1 race, making his debut with Red Bull's junior F1 team at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Tipped to be the next big thing, a 17-year-old Verstappen certainly made an impression having skipped F2 to go straight to the pinnacle of motorsport, but failed to finish his maiden F1 race due to an engine issue.

Thankfully for Red Bull, their gamble paid off, and a decade later, Verstappen celebrated his 200th grand prix with the main team at last weekend's Hungarian GP.

To celebrate the feat, Red Bull have released a tribute video to the 27-year-old on their official YouTube channel.

Fellow members of the Red Bull family and some of Verstappen's closest allies in the sport spoke highly of him, and his new boss Laurent Mekies revealed how the Dutchman's entry as a youngster impacted the FIA.

Reflecting on Verstappen's entry to the sport, new Red Bull team principal Mekies said: "I tell you what, we nearly crossed paths, when I left [Toro Rosso] he was already announced for us to come for a test and he was 16 at the time. So it was a big story.

"I moved to the FIA and because of Max we completely had to rethink the super license systems. Obviously you never have only one reasons to to do such a deep work but it was very much a strong trigger of it."

Mekies reveals FIA impact of Verstappen F1 debut

Mekies had a vast wealth of experience in the sport prior to replacing Christian Horner at Red Bull earlier this season.

The Frenchman started out in F1 as a race engineer for Minardi in 2002, and when the team was bought by Red Bull for use as a junior team in 2006, Mekies became Chief Engineer with Toro Rosso.

Whispers of a young hotshot joining their ranks had already begun to spread just as Mekies was leaving the day-to-day trackside duties for a role with the FIA, who changed the rules around the minimum age for a driver thanks to Verstappen.

After the now 27-year-old's debut at the age of 17 years and 166 days, the FIA raised the minimum age requirement for a driver to obtain a super licence, which is necessary for each driver to acquire in order to compete in even just one F1 session, let alone a whole grand prix weekend.

Just last year however, the FIA then overturned that ruling partially once again, removing the need for a driver to hold a driving licence, with a change implemented that stated: "at the sole discretion of the FIA, a driver judged to have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old."

Red Bull have now come full circle in 2025 after submitting a request for junior star Arvid Lindblad to be granted an exemption to acquire his super licence, with a seat in F1 top of his priority list.

Back in June, F1's governing body announced Lindblad had been granted special dispensation to have a super licence, with the 17-year-old going on to make his F1 debut at the British GP, sharing the track with Verstappen during FP1 at the wheel of Yuki Tsunoda's RB21.

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