Helmut Marko enjoyed the last laugh despite facing backlash over Max Verstappen being too young to race in Formula One . Red Bull chief Marko brushed off criticism that throwing Verstappen into the deep end as a teenager was "dangerous" a decade ago. That decision now appears to have been a masterstroke, given that the 27-year-old won his fourth world championship on Sunday after finishing fifth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix . The racing prodigy was snapped up by Toro Rosso in 2015 at the behest