Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Ten years after Red Bull promoted Max Verstappen from Toro Rosso on 5 May 2016, the move still stands as the call that changed the team’s future almost instantly, with the 18-year-old winning on his debut in Spain and launching a partnership that has since delivered four world titles.
Red Bull marked the anniversary on its social channels with a photo of a young Verstappen alongside a current image, saying he “has written the history of Red Bull.” That line fits the scale of what followed from a switch that, at the time, looked like one of the boldest mid-season driver changes Formula 1 had seen.
The decision came less than a week after Daniil Kvyat’s disastrous Russian Grand Prix. In Sochi, Kvyat hit Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari twice on the opening lap, first at Turn 2 and then again at Turn 3, sending Vettel into the wall and ending his race. Three days later, Red Bull confirmed that Verstappen would move up to the senior team and Kvyat would return to Toro Rosso.
In the team’s announcement, Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing team principal, said: “Max has proven to be an outstanding young talent.” Horner added that Verstappen’s “performance at Toro Rosso has been impressive so far, and we are pleased to give him the opportunity to drive for Red Bull Racing.”
Verstappen admitted he was “a bit shocked” by the promotion, but called it a “great opportunity” and said there was no extra pressure on him. Any debate about whether Red Bull had moved too quickly lasted only until Barcelona.
On his first weekend with the team, Verstappen took advantage after the Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. With Red Bull getting the strategy right and Verstappen holding off Kimi Räikkönen, he won at 18 years and 228 days old to become the youngest Grand Prix winner in Formula 1 history, a record that still stands.
That victory became the start of Red Bull’s most successful era with a single driver. Verstappen added nine more wins and nine more podiums from 2017 through 2020, and took his first pole position in Hungary in 2019, but the real shift came in 2021 when he won 10 races and claimed his first world title in a controversial Abu Dhabi finale. In doing so, he ended the run of Mercedes drivers’ championships that had lasted since 2014 and became Red Bull’s first title winner since Sebastian Vettel.
He then stayed champion for the next three seasons, bringing his total to four and matching Vettel’s Red Bull tally as well as Alain Prost’s overall total. Last season he finished runner-up, and the latest anniversary arrives at a much more uncertain point in the partnership.
The 2026 season has started without a podium for Verstappen so far, against the backdrop of his criticism of the new technical regulations introduced over the winter. That leaves Red Bull celebrating a decade-defining decision while also waiting to see whether the partnership that transformed both team and driver can produce another reset at the front.