The 18-year-old Verstappen won his first race for Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix and his meteoric rise in F1 was on another track, but harder in an era dominated by Mercedes achieve further success.

A rule reset in 2017 kept Mercedes ahead, Ferrari emerged as Brackley’s most frequent challenger, and while Red Bull’s engine deal with Renault soured, a gamble with Honda in 2019 didn’t immediately pay off.

While Verstappen’s mercurial talent has seen him score sporadic victories, it wasn’t until the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix that the Dutchman secured his first pole position, of which he now has 22.

Red Bull are finally starting to catch up to Mercedes in 2021 and then have a head start across the field with ground-effect rules for 2022, with Verstappen the clear favorite for a third successive world title.

Reflecting on the streamlined years at Red Bull, Verstappen said his five years waiting for title success at the Milton Keynes side taught him patience.

Asked if he ever had doubts about the Red Bull project, he replied. “Not suspicious, but you have to be patient.

“I think I’ve learned a lot of patience over the years, but I’ve always believed in the program because I saw how people work, and their drive to really get back to the top.

Race winner Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team celebrate on the podium

Photography: Red Bull Content Pool

“You can’t force it, just say, you know, we were the third-best team at one point, and then say we need to win now. It’s a process, and then you put a few guys in different positions and you’ll Get a good team.

Verstappen explained that once Red Bull’s engine battle with Renault was over, he began to feel the team was “moving towards something” as Honda started producing more powerful powerplants.

“At some point it just jumps from one year to the next and you really take a step forward,” he added.

“Of course, it’s easy in hindsight to say: ‘Yeah, I saw it coming, blah, blah.’ You don’t know, but I do believe in the process we’re in because I do feel like we’re heading towards something .

“We had a few years where the engine deal broke down and then just struggled a bit. We had pretty good packages at times but then lacked a bit of top speed. That made it difficult to really show the true potential.

“And then when the Honda came along, it was some work in progress again. But a year later, I think we’ve become very competitive, and it’s good to see.”