‘Well done Max, that was a very mature drive.’ That’s Red Bull’s Christian Horner congratulating his young driver Max Verstappen for a superb second place behind Kimi Räikkönen at last weekend’s US Grand Prix in Texas. It was a very different scenario from the 2017 Texas race: last year the race stewards decided they had just seen Bad Max when he put all four wheels over the white line to overtake Räikkönen’s Ferrari. They relegated him from third to fourth, making it Sad Max. So do Horner’s words last Sunday mean the Dutchman, who turned 21 just three weeks ago, has grown up and found his real self? Because when Max Verstappen arrived on the F1 scene in 2015, it seemed Grand Prix racing got not just one new driver but several. The Dutch teenager divided opinions so radically that F1 followers could be forgiven for not knowing exactly who they were dealing with. Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? Or the greatest talent to emerge since the days of Senna and Schumacher? Just take Max’s Mexican experiences. In 2016 Verstappen finished third but was demoted from the podium before he even got there – and Mexican fans got to see a pretty Mad Max. Fast forward one year and Mexico at last met Glad Max, when 2017 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez brought Verstappen his third F1 victory. ‘Of course it makes it very special here in Mexico with a lot of fans,’ he said. ‘They are very passionate about Formula One and it’s a great podium to be on, which last year I think I should have been on already but I missed out at the last moment.’ Lewis Hamilton won his fourth world title that day so he was in a generous mood. ‘Red Bull have been great today, big congratulations to Max,’ said Hamilton, ‘he’s really the brightest young star that we’ve seen for some time.’ Less than six months later Hamilton and Verstappen had a clash in the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, and the champion was less diplomatic. We can’t print the rude name Lewis called Max, but the Red Bull driver was quick to respond. ‘It is quite simple to blame the younger driver’, he retorted, ‘that is the only way I can see it. There is no reason for me to change anything.’ Maybe his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo disagrees. Two races after Bahrain, in Azerbaijan, Ricciardo lost out during the pit stops and found himself behind Verstappen. The Australian pushed hard to regain his place, but Verstappen slammed the door and the two collided. Team principal Horner was not so happy that day and gave his two drivers a dressing-down behind closed doors. But as Austin last week showed, he is the first to defend his young prodigy. ‘He is pure racer,’ he says of Verstappen, which is where the Senna comparison starts. In the Eighties it was Ayrton’s way or the highway as the Brazilian showed that streak that is the hallmark of a born winner. Determination? Ruthlessness? Or an accident waiting to happen… That’s how Räikkönen felt when Verstappen brake-tested the Ferrari driver early in the Belgian Grand Prix of 2016. ‘If things don’t change,’ opined Kimi, ‘one day he will cause a huge accident. I am fine with good, hard racing but that is not correct.’ We saw Glad Max already in Austria this year. Muscling his way past Kimi on the opening lap, Verstappen then managed his tyres and his race to claim his fourth victory, his first since Mexico last year. So hold your breath and wait: will it be Mad, Bad, Sad or Glad Max we see this time?