Brawn dreams of ‘more Verstappens’ in F1

FOM director of motorsports Ross Brawn has said he wants the driver standard to be raised, with more "Max Verstappens" racing in Formula 1.

The Dutch teenager's crowning achievement came when becoming the youngest-ever driver to win a race in what was his first appearance for Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2016.

His stunning overtakes at very wet Brazilian Grand Prix last year were also a career highlight, and Brawn wants to see other new top-quality drivers bring the same level of excitement to the sport.

"My dream for this five-year plan is that we have more Verstappens in Formula 1," Brawn told the official F1 website. 

"We want a system that sees only the best drivers in Formula 1. Don’t get me wrong: there is a good standard of drivers in Formula One, but if we didn’t have the commercial requirements that some of the teams have regarding their drivers, we could raise the standard even higher.

"But to do that you have to remove the commercial dependency that small teams have on drivers."