Red Bull F1 Advisor Marko Reveals How Max Verstappen Benefitted from His Father’s ‘Mistakes’

Max Verstappen is certainly one of the most talented Formula One drivers on the current grid after having defeated the 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, to secure his first-ever world championship title in 2021.

Of course, prior to the season, the odds were stacked up against the Dutchman winning against a much resilient Hamilton.

Fortunately for the fans, the rivalry extended its way to the final race weekend in Abu Dhabi only for Verstappen to come out on top and claim the decisive race victory. And, this is indeed a dream come true for the entire Verstappen family as both of Max’s parents were formerly into racing.

Prior to Max, his father, Jos Verstappen cherished his own F1 stint back in the 90s. However, the senior Dutchman made one too many bad choices, that led his career to fall short of success.

Interestingly, Dr. Helmut Marko opined Jos’s poor F1 stint to be a blessing in disguise as he managed to keep his son, Max, away from making the same bad choices.

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How Jos helped Max Verstappen

As reported by Motorsport Total, Marko acknowledged that Verstappen Sr was a successful F1 driver, but some mistakes led to his downfall. “You have to see that from the start. His father Jos was a successful Formula 1 driver, a quick one,” he said. However, Jos made “some mistakes” in his career choices.

“He built his son up with all this knowledge, avoiding any mistakes.”

It is likely that Marko is referring to Verstappen Sr’s decision to race for Benetton. Back in 1994, the Dutchman was straightaway up against Michael Schumacher, as his teammate. He was burdened with the pressure of winning the constructors’ championship which led him to cause a handful of mistakes on the track including some big crashes.

Eventually, with Verstappen not scoring on the other end, Benetton decided to replace him with Johnny Herbert for the final two races. And that switch pretty much ended his career.

Of course, he then went on to race for Simtek, Footwork Arrows, Tyrell, Stewart, Honda, and Minardi, but none helped him revive his racing career. As for Verstappen Jr, he made the smart decision of keeping him at Toro Rosso for more than a season before getting him into Red Bull; a perfect build-up to his career.

And the results have started to flow. But, the question is, can the two Verstappens together maintain the positive trend with Red Bull?

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