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Max Verstappen Saw His Father as a “Lunatic” for This Unusual Behavior: “Luckily, He Doesn’t Need That Now…”

Published 09/13/2022, 9:30 PM EDT

Former F1 Driver, Jos Verstappen, who drove 106 F1 races and has acclaimed two podium finishes, is arguably the reason Max Verstappen is the driver he is today.

“My attitude all comes from my dad,” once said the reigning World Champion, Max Verstappen.

Diving into the journey the father-son duo has shared over the years to prepare for the prestigious races wasn’t always as rainbows and butterflies, as you’d think. In fact, it was quite the contrary.

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Max’s father, the former F1 racer, has paved the way for his son in order to grow as a better driver than he was. He’s been his mentor as well as manager.

Back in 2014, at the beginning of Max’s career, during the F3 races, Jos would casually hang over the pit to encourage his son and demand he go faster as he needed guidance with the perfect lap.

Sharing anecdotes with ‘CarNext’ in January, Jos said, “He [Max] saw me as a lunatic. Hanging over the pit wall. Luckily, he doesn’t need that now. It’s in him and he brings it out now. He knows how to qualify.”

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Going back in time, when Max was a teen, things took an ugly turn, which resulted in the father-son duo having a brief falling out in 2012.

Max Verstappen was once abandoned at a gas station by Verstappen Sr.

Back when he was 15, Max Verstappen was racing in the CIK-FIA KZ2 Karting Championship in Sarno, Italy and he crashed in the second lap because of poor turn judgment.

Sr. Verstappen was furious and refused to talk about the incident. He then kicked him out of his van at a petrol pump and drove away. Luckily Max’s mum, Sophie Kumpen, also a go-karting champion, was around and came to his rescue.

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Later on, Max revealed that Sr. Verstappen withheld talking to him for a week.

Recently, Max Verstappen exclaimed in a chat with David Coulthard, “My dad never said I was gonna be a champion, He was always the opposite, he’d tell me I was gonna be a truck driver or like a bus driver. He was always, in a good way I think, making me realize that what I was doing at the time was not enough…”

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As things stand, it is safe to say that Jos’ techniques worked as his son currently holds the title for the most successful Dutch driver in Formula 1. And we can not forget that Verstappen has only begun. With a huge lead of 116 point lead ahead of the driver in P2, Verstappen can pick up his second world title in the very next race itself in Singapore.

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Written by:

Nida Chakraborty is a Formula 1 Author at EssentiallySports. After completing her undergrad from St Xavier's College with a degree in Psychology, she had gone on to take up multiple journalistic ventures in Radio and Television. Not only has she been a producer for Fever 104 FM, one of India's leading FM radio stations, but she has also worked for MTV and Channel V.

Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh

Max Verstappen Saw His Father as a “Lunatic” for This Unusual Behavior: “Luckily, He Doesn’t Need That Now…”

Max Verstappen was once abandoned at a gas station by Verstappen Sr.

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