- Toro Rosso
Focus on mental strength is bulls*** - Verstappen
Ahead of his debut season with Toro Rosso next year, Red Bull protégée Max Verstappen has said the focus on mental strength in Formula One is "bullshit".
Verstappen started his F1 career at just 17-years-old earlier this month when he drove a Toro Rosso during Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. With just one year's experience in F3 under his belt, he will have a full race drive in F1 next year but says the pressure of racing at the top level of motorsport is not an issue.
"I have no problems at all with [mental strength]," he told Red Bull's website. "I'm really relaxed and I don't want to think about mental stress, or how strong you are mentally because, to be honest, I find it a bit bullshit,"
Verstappen finished third in this season's European F3 championship after first testing an F3 car in August 2013. Up until that point he had been racing go-karts full time, but he said he adapted to the step up to proper racing cars quickly.
"Of course before you jump in the car you don't know what to expect. But after I did a few laps, I started to feel comfortable. You start to feel the limits a bit. It's completely different to go karts. I mean, the braking pedal, the throttle application, how you sit in the car, the view. That was the main difference really. But from the beginning we were quite fast, so I adapted quite well."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
