Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen excited for Austin return

One year ago, Max Verstappen was still taking his first steps as a prospective Formula One driver when he took part in a practice session for Toro Rosso at the United States Grand Prix.

Fast forward a year and Verstappen is no longer a test and reserve driver for the team but a fully-fledged Grand Prix racer with 15 starts already under his belt. Now he's looking forward to having a proper crack at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas this weekend under full race conditions.

"I have good memories of Austin, as last year I did a Friday practice session there and it was all very exciting," Verstappen confirmed. "It's a great track, with a lot of elevation changes and fast corners. I really enjoyed driving there."

The Belgian-Dutch driver, who turned 18 just three weeks ago which meant that he was finally able to pass his road driving test and pick up a proper license to go with his Formula One superlicence equivalent, said that he'd been having a quiet time relaxing in preparation to the upcoming back-to-back events in the US and Mexico.

"I've also trained, been on the sim and spent some time with my family and friends," he said. "I also went to Hockenheim at the weekend for the final round of the DTM, it was great fun."

But his time watching on as a spectator is over: "Now it's our turn to go racing!" he said, with a big smile on his face at the prospect.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.