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Verstappen reminds Horner of Vettel's "crash kid" days

17:25, 15 Apr 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Max Verstappen the next crash kid? His team principal has seen it all before.

Max Verstappen's scruffy start to 2018 has reminded team principal Christian Horner of Sebastian Vettel's early career. Dubbed the crash kid by another team principal in 2010, Verstappen's mistakes and incidents have drawn criticism from up and down the paddock.

“Yes he’s made some mistakes,” Horner said. “But I remember when Sebastian was at a similar stage in his career, it wasn’t uncommon that he also made some mistakes.

“I’m fully confident that he’s a phenomenal talent. He’s smart enough to recognise the areas he needs to work on and I’ve got no doubt we will address that.”

Contact with Vettel at the hairpin during the Chinese Grand Prix landed Verstappen two penalty points on his license bringing him up to five in total. FIA race director Charlie Whiting says the matter is finished though and the Dutchman will need to clean up his act before Baku.

“I think the stewards have done their bit, I don’t think there’s any necessity to do that. I think he made a mistake which he got penalised for.

“There probably is a little bit of criticism but that’s what the penalty points are for,” he added. “They’re there to make a habitual offender take notice. He’s got five points now, he’s going to be more careful, I would say.”