He was the youngest driver to start an F1 Grand Prix for 29 years but walked away after five races

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Max Verstappen set the record as the youngest driver to start a Formula 1 Grand Prix when he debuted for Toro Rosso in 2015 and he has continued to break records since.

But not every driver to register their breakthrough in the pinnacle of motorsport at a tender age goes on to enjoy anywhere near the sort of career that Verstappen has enjoyed thus far. The Dutchman has four F1 drivers’ championship titles, and he may even win a fifth in 2025.

Verstappen made his F1 debut in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix driving for Toro Rosso at 17 years, five months and 15 days old. He is also still the only driver to debut in F1 at 17. Lance Stroll, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman are the only drivers to debut in F1 aged 18.

Mercedes gem Antonelli broke Verstappen’s record as F1’s youngest race leader in the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, where the teen even set the fastest lap, as well. But success at a very young age is not always common for drivers as they break onto the Formula 1 grid.

Mike Thackwell was the youngest F1 driver to start a Grand Prix from 1980 to 2009… but only started two

Mike Thackwell had the record as the youngest driver to start an F1 Grand Prix from 1980 to 2009, having debuted with Tyrrell in the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix. The native of Auckland, New Zealand was 19 years, five months and 29 days old when he hit the grid in Montreal.

Yet Thackwell would only formally enter five Grands Prix before turning his back on F1 after a return with RAM failed to materialise in 1986. RAM withdrew their entry for the 1986 F1 season before the campaign commenced, with the team shutting up shop after 65 entries.

Thackwell even walked away from F1 having only started two Grands Prix in his career, both of which he also failed to finish. The Kiwi failed to qualify for three of his Grand Prix entries, and retired in the other two – which were both at the Canadian Grand Prix in 1980 and ‘84.

Arrows initially planned to give Thackwell his F1 debut two rounds before he would race for Tyrrell in Canada, having entered their then-test driver in the 1980 Dutch Grand Prix. But the Kiwi failed to qualify, as he toured Zandvoort 2.78 seconds off Rene Arnoux’s pole lap time.

Tyrrell then took Thackwell in for the final two rounds of the 1980 season in Canada and the USA. Yet Thackwell was back on the sidelines until he stood in for RAM (then operating with Skoal Bandit branding) for the ‘84 Canadian GP, but a turbo failure ended his race on Lap 29.

A return to Tyrrell also arrived later in the 1984 season at the German Grand Prix. Yet he did not race at Hockenheim, having again failed to qualify after lapping 12.504s off Alain Prost’s pole time. Tyrrell majorly struggled as Stefan Johansson qualified P26, 12.449s off the pace.

Why did Mike Thackwell walk away from Formula 1 after five Grand Prix entries?

Thackwell was a highly promising gem when he set the record as the youngest driver to start an F1 Grand Prix in the 1980 Canadian GP. He also had the record until Jaime Alguersuari got his F1 debut at 19 years, four months and three days old in the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Kiwi also enriched his reputation between his F1 breakthrough in 1980 and his eventual end in 1984 by winning the 1984 European F2 Championship. He also entered sportscar and IndyCar races before eventually hanging up his driving gloves entirely at the close of 1988.

But the “vanity” and “greed” within the Formula 1 paddock was not the life that Thackwell wanted. So, he had no issues with walking away from the pinnacle of motorsport to race in various sportscar and touring car categories before he then retired from all forms of racing.

“I’m not vainglorious,” Thackwell once told Goodwood. “I got out of the sport because of the vanity, the greed, self-obsession, the elitism and the lack of humbleness.

“But that’s me. It was my problem because I couldn’t deal with it. I wasn’t good enough to deal with that sort of stuff.”