“Lamine Yamal is something incredible”

Max Verstappen is a declared Barça fan, and in the Netherlands he is a PSV fan. In that order. The Dutchman is a Barça fan and, of course, he couldn’t help but be happy when he saw the explosion of talent of young Lamine Yamal at the Euro 2024 championship held in Germany. It featured the three-time F1 world champion (2021, 2022 and 2023), in a relaxed andExclusive interview granted to Mundo Deportivo with Red Bull hospitalityat the F1 Hungarian GP this weekend.

“Lamine is something incredible. I mean, at that age, playing for your country’s team and performing like he did at Euro 2024 is something I really enjoy seeing,” said the driver of the Red Bull team, a dominant team in recent championships.

It is inevitable to draw comparisons between Lamin’s and Max’s cases. The Dutchman shocked the whole of F1 by becoming the youngest in history to debut at a Grand Prix in Japan in 2014, aged just 17. And in 2015 he became an official F1 driver with ‘Toro Rosso’, Red Bull’s ‘B’ team. There he was the earliest to score points in a GP, at Malaysia 2015, at 17 years, 5 months and 29 days. And in 2016, at 18 years old, in his first Grand Prix with the first team, Red Bull, who debuted with them at the beginning of the season, he achieved his first victory. It was at the Spanish GP. At the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya he became the youngest in history to win an F1 race, the youngest to climb the podium, the first to take the lead. 18 years, 7 months and 15 days. Coincidence or not, Barcelona combines two talents of the present and the future of both competitions, as Lamine also reads records and molds the Catalan capital in the eyes of the whole world.

Yamal can be called the Max Verstappen of football. “I don’t like making these kinds of comparisons,” he said with a laugh when MD proposed that idea to him. “But to play at that age so well and with so much self-confidence is something very special,” he added in his response.

His mind control and achievements at 17 years old

Because of his precocity, Max Verstappen is one of the few who can understand what Lamine Yamal might be going through at the age of 17. The Dutch driver, after winning his first race at the age of 18, had to endure the enormous pressure of having to fight for everything, albeit against a superior Mecedes at the time. He had to go through delicate moments in 2018, when he suffered several accidents where he was questioned. But he continued to accelerate regardless and 2021 came, with Red Bull matching the performance of its car with Mercedes. There he duels, face to face, against 7-time champion Hamilton. He dethroned him. And since then he has accumulated 3 titles.

This is how Max Verstappen explained to MD how he endured the pressure that the young Barça player now has in his boots.

“Obviously, I can’t speak for Lamine. But I can imagine what he’s feeling right now.”he declared.

“I think when you’re very young you play based on your talent, your fun, and when you’re really good, things are easier for you. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to work hard because you have to work hard to get to the top at a young age. But when you’re so talented and naturally gifted, I think it’s easier for you, you know? And then once you’re good… you play for Barcelona, ​​​​​​​​​you play for the national team, things like this, but in my case, I signed a contract with an F1 team, I made my debut in F1 . at 17 years… Just try to enjoy, you try to do the best you can. And luckily, things turned out very well.” That is, he believes that Lamine should just have fun to use his talent and keep working hard, always.

Now, Max is under pressure to keep winning. His trick? There are no mental or relaxation techniques: it’s just about using natural talent and accumulating experience to become stronger and stronger.

“You start winning races and people really start watching you, they watch everything you do. Maybe there’s a little pressure on you not to make mistakes. It also increases when you become world champion or things like that, trying to replicate it again and get the title again. You can’t make too many mistakes, you have to be careful, and you trust your experience more. Because of course From my first year in F1 until now, I have more experience and that was the big difference compared to Verstappen at the beginning. “I think the natural speed has always been there, but now I can trust my experience a little more to know when to do what.”he explained.

“I don’t use any mental techniques. It always came quite naturally to me. I don’t really need any of that. I like racing and I think I have a pretty calm approach to riding, which I think is something that makes less stressful for “I’m going for it”. That’s his trick. Enjoy, work and accumulate experience. Tip for Lamine.