Max Verstappen says he never felt any pressure stepping up to race in F1 for the first time this season at the age of 17.

Much was made of Verstappen’s age when Toro Rosso announced it would be promoting him to a race seat after just one year of racing in F3 after moving up from karts. The move even saw the FIA introduce a mandatory minimum age of 18 for a superlicence to race at the top level.

Despite the scrutiny ahead of his debut, Verstappen told the official Formula One website he never feels he has been under any real pressure this year.

“For me I don’t feel less or more pressure,” Verstappen said. “To be honest I never really felt a lot of pressure, also at the start of the year. The first two races you take it a bit easier with overtaking – you want to finish races to get experience. When you get more confidence in the car you can do braver overtakes, and I think that’s getting better and better all the time.”

And Verstappen says he takes some of the pressure off himself by accepting he is in a learning year in his rookie season.

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Asked for the hardest thing to adjust to in F1, Verstappen replied: “Just learning the car every race weekend.

“I don’t have a lot of experience of the tracks outside of Europe, so that’s also a big thing. The team helps you a lot. It’s just gaining experience – learning every phase of qualifying for example: how to get the maximum out of the tyres, how to set up the car from Q1 to Q2 to Q3.”