Motorsport
The next Max Verstappen? Meet Red Bull's 15-year-old Dutch F1 prodigy
Watch Spanish F4 live and for free on DAZN
Red Bull Formula One Team has spent decades searching for the exceptional. Sebastian Vettel emerged from its junior ranks to become a four-time world champion. Max Verstappen was given his Formula 1 debut as a teenager and developed into the defining driver of his generation.
Now, another Dutch teenager is beginning his journey through the Red Bull system.
Rocco Coronel is only 15, far too young and far too early in his career for comparisons with Verstappen to carry much weight. But the ingredients inevitably invite them: a prodigious karting record, Red Bull backing, remarkable success almost immediately after graduating to cars and an ambition that stretches all the way to Formula 1.
Coronel is now taking his first full steps in single-seater racing in the F4 Spanish Championship with MP Motorsport. The son of Dutch touring car star Tom Coronel has already won championships in karting and junior car racing, and his first appearances in Formula 4 suggest the momentum has not stopped.
So who is Rocco Coronel, and why has the 15-year-old emerged as one of Red Bull's most intriguing prospects for the future?
Watch Spanish F4 live and for free on DAZN.
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Who is Rocco Coronel?
Motorsport was never likely to feel particularly foreign to Rocco Coronel.
His father, Tom Coronel, has spent more than three decades racing around the world, becoming one of the Netherlands' most recognisable touring car drivers through his years in the World Touring Car Championship and World Touring Car Cup. His mother, Paulien Zwart, also raced professionally.
But the younger Coronel is rapidly building a reputation that belongs to him.
Born on October 22, 2010, he began karting at a young age and established himself among Europe's outstanding prospects before reaching his teenage years.
Red Bull took notice. Coronel earned a place in its celebrated junior programme following a driver evaluation at Jerez, putting him into the same development system that has helped bring some of Formula 1's biggest names to the grid.
The objective is straightforward, even if achieving it is anything but. Coronel wants to reach Formula 1.
There are hundreds of talented young drivers with the same ambition. What has made Coronel particularly interesting is the speed with which he has so far cleared each new obstacle placed in front of him.
Rocco Coronel's rapid rise through motorsport
Junior racing careers can disappear almost as quickly as they emerge. A spectacular season in karting guarantees very little once a driver is asked to translate that speed into a racing car.
Coronel has so far made that transition look unusually comfortable.
His breakthrough on the international karting scene came in 2024, when he won the FIA Karting European Championship in the fiercely competitive OK-Junior category and finished third in the FIA Karting World Championship.
Then came cars.
Coronel entered the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2025, swapping the immediacy of karting for a new discipline, heavier machinery and a championship full of young drivers with considerably more experience.
The adaptation did not take long.
He won 11 races and collected 19 podiums from 22 starts, setting series records in both categories and becoming the first non-British driver to win the Ginetta Junior title.
It was the sort of season that demanded another step.
That arrived shortly after Coronel turned 15, when he made his Formula 4 debut at the final round of the 2025 F4 Spanish Championship in Barcelona.
A Formula 4 car was another significant change: more downforce, more performance and a style of racing much closer to the traditional route towards Formula 1.
Yet on his first competitive weekend in a single-seater, Coronel finished on the podium.
One weekend does not make an F1 driver. Nor does a dominant season in Ginetta Juniors or a European karting title. Taken together, though, they explain why Red Bull believes Coronel is worth watching closely.
How to watch Spanish F4 on DAZN
Coronel's next test is already underway. The 15-year-old has joined Dutch team MP Motorsport for the 2026 F4 Spanish Championship, his first full season in single-seater racing.
He made an immediate impression with two victories at the opening round in Valencia and is competing near the front of a talented field featuring compatriot Kasper Schormans, Borys Lyzen, Andrej Petrovic and Noah Monteiro.
There is an enormous distance between Formula 4 and Formula 1, and Verstappen's extraordinary rise remains an unfair yardstick for almost any young driver. For now, the intrigue lies in watching Coronel take these first steps and discovering just how far his talent might carry him.
Fans can watch Coronel and the next generation of young drivers throughout the 2026 F4 Spanish Championship live and free on DAZN.*
*Spanish F4 is available globally on DAZN, excluding Brazil, Canada, USA, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, the Caribbean, Central America, LATAM, Bermuda, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, the Falkland Islands, Guyana and Suriname.
