Max Verstappen told fellow Dutchman Nyck de Vries "not to think too much" as he prepared to make his Formula 1 debut last weekend.
Despite being a former F2 and Formula E champion, De Vries has never been hired for an F1 race seat. Instead, he has been acting as a reserve for Mercedes while continuing to race elsewhere.
But at last weekend's Italian Grand Prix, he received the call he has been waiting for. Alex Albon was ruled out of the race due to appendicitis on Saturday morning, and the 27-year-old was already in the paddock having taken part in FP1 for Aston Martin the previous day.
On race day, De Vries did his chances of securing a permanent place on the grid no harm by finishing ninth and being named driver of the day. It was Williams' best result of the season so far, and earned the Dutchman widespread praise from fans, pundits and fellow racers alike.
One of them was Verstappen, who shared row four of the grid with his compatriot due to a five-place grid penalty. De Vries is actually three years older than the Red Bull star, but has far less F1 experience than the man who is all but certain to be crowned world champion for a second time in a row later this year.
In the post-race press conference, Monza winner Verstappen revealed he had given De Vries something of a pep talk on the grid. Asked about what he had said, he replied: "First of all, enjoy it and don't think about it too much, don't stress about it too much.
"I remember my first one... it happens so quickly everything, but I think more probably if you just tell yourself we'll see what happens instead of really stressing out – 'I need a good start, I need a good first lap'. You shouldn't think about that and I think he handled everything really well of course. But yeah, it's nice. We know each other really well so it was just a quick little motivation speech."
Expanding further on De Vries' "impressive" performance, Verstappen added: "I saw him battling in front of me when he was defending 10th at the time. For Nyck to jump in and deliver this performance is definitely... it's not easy at all.
"I think he did a great job from the things I saw, also in terms of defending. He just kept his cool, didn't make mistakes and I'm very happy for him to score the points. It's impressive, of course, in your first race."
