"I was literally on fire" - Max Verstappen reminisces his first F1 appearance at Suzuka

Max Verstappen has said that he was very nervous when he made his F1 debut at the Japanese GP in 2014.

The Red Bull driver was given an opportunity to try the car, as he was going to be a Torro Rosso driver in 2015. During the driver's press conference ahead of the 2022 edition of the race, Verstappen opened up on what he felt during his first weekend almost a decade ago.

The then teenager said that it was certainly not easy, as he had never driven a car that had a lot of power. He said:

"I remember I was literally on fire at the end of the session, so that was good! Yeah, it was nice. To do your first outing in an F1 car around Suzuka is probably not normally straightforward, but Red Bull wanted me to do it, and yeah, I remember the very first time I drove out, I couldn't believe how much power I had."

He continued:

"So that was a bit of a shock to the system, but overall, very good memories of driving the car and trying to just understand the basics of a Formula 1 car and then of course, in all those years after that … to be honest, I think what helped the most is just experience and good moments, bad moments you've had in Formula 1."

Verstappen said about his evolution in the sport since then:

"I think they make you a better driver, just knowing how a weekend works, knowing how to deal with Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Now, it all feels very easy. Of course, when you just start in Formula 1, it's all very unknown and at the time, I only had one year of single seater experience as well so all of that. Yeah, if I compare myself as a driver now to then it's a very big difference."

Verstappen (341) will clinch his second championship at Suzuka this weekend if he wins the race and also bags the fastest lap.

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Just pay attention to fuel level - Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen's race in Singapore was completely compromised, as Red Bull under fuelled his car.

The Dutch driver was very angry, as he missed out on a comfortable pole position and had a huge outburst on team radio. When asked what changes he would want to see in the team's operations, Verstappen said that there were quite a few things - especially noting the fuel level - that went wrong that weekend. He said:

"It's not rocket science. I mean just pay attention to the fuel level. So there is not much to really change. When you fuel the car for five laps, you can do five laps, you're not going to be able to do six laps. You can talk about it for hours, but it's not going to suddenly change anything."

He added:

"But it's not only that. We had a very poor Friday in terms of amount of laps so also there, I think a few things went wrong because when we made changes to the car we couldn't really test of course, because it was wet."

Verstappen did, however, reiterate his faith in Red Bull to get things right, as it was a rare error from a team that has been a cut above the rest all year. He said:

" You learn from that. But there's nothing like it suddenly needs to change in the team. We all know that it was a bad weekend but we also have shown this year that we've had a lot of very good weekends, so we know how to do it."

The Dutchman is on the cusp of breaking multiple records this year, and a lot of the credit for that is due to his consistency.