Max Verstappen has pulled off some impressive overtaking moves over the years, whether it was his outside overtake in the wet on Nico Rosberg in Brazil or his first corner overtake on Oscar Piastri at Imola.
The Dutchman has shown that he has no fear when up against his rivals with his impressive overtakes, although there was one move that caught the eye of everyone in his rookie season.
Verstappen had yet to turn 18 years old and was racing with Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso, and was coming into the mid-point of the season off the back of a fourth place in Hungary.
Spa Francorchamps was next and while the Dutchman progressed into Q2, power unit issues forced him to start P15 on the grid. Faced with a comeback drive into the points, Verstappen made his way through the field with some impressive overtakes.
Verstappen pulled off one manoeuvre that Helmut Marko would let tell him never to do again, which he would later recall in a documentary series.
Max Verstappen was told by Helmut Marko to ‘never’ try Spa Francorchamps overtake again
Verstappen was racing with Felipe Nasr when he got a run on the Brazilian exiting the fast Blanchimont corner.
As they rounded the left-hander at 170mph, Verstappen kept his foot planted on the outside of the corner and briefly went off track before making the move stick at the Bus Stop chicane.
Verstappen had yielded the position before making the overtake, which effectively enabled him to escape any sanction from the stewards for completing a move off track.
The Dutchman claimed that he had been pulling off similar moves in his simulator, but after the race, Marko was not overly pleased with his tactics.
“Normally, [Blanchimont is] not a corner where you would consider overtaking. In a sim, it’s a bit easier. When I went for the move in real life. I had more top speed and less downforce so, at the moment, the car was moving around a little bit more,” said Verstappen on the Off the Beaten Track documentary.
“It was fun. At the time, I enjoyed it a lot. Helmut [Marko] came to me straight after the race and he told me never to do that again. I was like: ‘I passed him, it’s okay.’ Now I understand why.”
Max Verstappen’s rookie Formula 1 season
It was an impressive rookie season by F1 standards from Verstappen in the midfield Toro Rosso, achieving regular top 10 finishes.
He would go on to finish 12th overall in the Drivers’ Championship and score a total of 63 points for them, the highest of any driver for Toro Rosso until Pierre Gasly went on to smash the record with 167 points with his win in 2020.
Verstappen would also equal his best finish at the US Grand Prix later that year, in what were tricky conditions for most of the race while the two Mercedes drivers battled for the title.
The Dutchman would compete in a further four races for Toro Rosso at the start of the 2016 season before being promoted to Red Bull full-time at the Spanish GP where he took his first win.