It’s hard to recall a time when Max Verstappen wasn’t regarded as one of the greatest drivers of his generation — but in the early days of his career, his genius wasn’t always apparent.

In fact, Bernie Collins has admitted that her former race team, Force India, was highly skeptical of Verstappen when he first launched onto the F1 scene!

Bernie Collins admits early Max Verstappen doubt

When Max Verstappen was signed to Toro Rosso in 2015, it was clear that the likes of Helmut Marko and Christian Horner had extremely high hopes for the recently-signed junior driver.

Verstappen was hailed as a prodigy, to the extent that he bypassed Formula 2 entirely to debut in the top tier of international motorsport. It would be a trial by fire.

But the fire often seemed to come from the teenage Dutch driver.

In those early years, Verstappen was aggressive, prone to mistakes. He was a late braker, launching into overtakes with a sense of entitlement at each corner — and it often resulted in contact with the competition.

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Verstappen, though, proved to be a quick learner. When he was promoted to Red Bull Racing midway through the 2016 season, he justified the hype by winning his first race with the outfit.

It took several more years for designer Adrian Newey to craft a racing machine around the clearly formidable Verstappen — and the Red Bull team was rewarded with championships in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

But not everyone was as confident in a young Verstappen’s abilities as Horner and Marko!

In fact, former race strategist turned Sky F1 pundit Bernie Collins took to the Indo Sport Podcast to share the skepticism that she — and her Force India team — felt.

“The Max of old a few years ago, there was a time when people said – I heard people at the team when I was working at the time – Max will never be world champion,” Collins remembered.

“He was making a lot of mistakes, he was crashing the car, he was very aggressive, not putting the best together.

“He’s matured so much in the last few years.

“It’s easy to forget that there was a time when people thought ‘he’s not going to win’ because he wasn’t getting the best out of the car.

“Now he’s matured to the point of being calm, not being aggressive, not crashing with other drivers. He has brought it together, and that’s what’s making him a great driver.”

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