Verstappen: 'Legal to drive. Born to race!'

Not many Formula One stars have ever had to fly home from Suzuka post-haste in order to take driving lessons. A day after finishing ninth at the Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was at the wheel of a driving instructor's car in Belgium. Two days and just five hours of practical lessons later - one wonders whether the instructor ever had grounds to use his emergency controls - Verstappen took and passed his practical test in Belgium.

"Legal to drive. Born to race! #driverlicense," Verstappen wrote on his Twitter account on his birthday on Wednesday, also sharing congratulations from rival racer Romain Grosjean.

Parallel parking and a three-point turn

Speaking to his own website, www.verstappen.nl, the Toro Rosso driver said that he was "a little nervous to make mistakes" and said it was "a relief" to have passed his practical. Verstappen passed his theoretical test, receiving a partial license to drive under supervision, in January of this year, several months after winning the "FIA Super License" that any F1 driver requires.

In Wednesday's test, he was asked to perform a three-point turn and to parallel park - something he might have done more thoroughly at Suzuka in free practice when he suffered car failure.

Verstappen had said in the past that he preferred to be a passenger on the roads, because it allowed him a moment of rest: "I still think that way now. But if, in future, I'd like to go somewhere myself, now I can just grab my Renault Clio RS. That freedom makes me feel good."

Standout rookie

Despite racing in F1 under a Dutch license, like his father Jos (once teammate to Michael Schumacher at Benetton), Verstappen has a Belgian mother, passport and driving license; he lives just across the Belgian side of the border in Maaseik.

His rookie season has confounded critics who said that 17 was too early an age to enter Formula One. In just his second race, at Malaysia, Verstappen became the sport's youngest points-scorer ever, finishing seventh.

His best finish to date came at the twisty Hungaroring near Budapest, a fourth place. He bagged points in front of home fans at the Belgian Grand Prix too. The 18-year-old has scored points in six of his 14 outings, and is outscoring his Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., another rookie with a famous racing father, in the championship. His bold overtaking maneuvers, and the car control he exhibits even when hard on the brakes (the point when a race car tends to be most unstable) have caught observers' attention.

Hunting Vettel, with Vettel?

Already the youngest starter and points-scorer, the 18-year-old has plenty of time on his hands to chase Formula One's other age-related records, the majority of which belong to German champ Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was 21, and himself with Toro Rosso, when he claimed his first pole position and then won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix in the rain at Monza. His first world championship, in 2010, came after his 23rd birthday.

Verstappen has been a rare bright spot for the Renault-powered Red Bull empire in F1 this season, which is currently scrambling to find an alternative engine supplier and repeatedly threatening that it might withdraw its four cars from the grid. Some Italian media have suggested that Verstappen may prove the solution to this, reporting that the star Dutchman could be grease to the wheels of a possible engine deal with Ferrari. In that case, he might one day seek to beat Vettel's youth-related records as the German's Ferrari teammate.