It was a measure of Max Verstappen’s spare capacity in a season of record-breaking success that the first person he mentioned on Sunday after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a retirement-bound F1 veteran team boss, Franz Tost.

After 18 years as the head of Red Bull’s junior team, an operation that has been a conveyor belt of talent for the Milton Keynes-based outfit and others, Tost was on the Alpha Tauri pit wall for the final time. 

“Thank you to everyone,” said Verstappen on his in-lap after his record 19th win of the season and the 54th of his career. “And thank you to Franz Tost. He has had lots of us under his wings and it is his last race – so thank you to Franz.”

Verstappen’s progress from “Mad Max” in his early days of impetuous aggression through his determined arrival as a serial champion, following his controversial 2021 triumph at the Yes Marina Circuit, to his latest role as a record-breaking winning machine has been unstoppable. 

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