![]() ![]() Some of what’s happened, like in China for example, will make me a better driver. “I definitely don’t need to be a hero in every move, but that’s also not my intention. Has anyone asked him just to… back off a bit? Of course, you learn from those things, and I always try to find the positive. Looking at every race I’ve been very quick, just a bit unlucky with the result or the outcome of an incident. Every year so far I’ve been improving in terms of pace. If your car is a bit slower than the best one, you have to work harder to get close.”Īt the time of our conversation, Max is enduring a dip in fortunes, and is weathering criticism from all sides. When you have that margin compared to the others, you can drive at 90 per cent and still be faster. “If you’re in a car that’s a second faster than the others, you can play ping pong on the back straight. “That depends on the situation you’re in,” Max says quickly. ![]() Ross Brawn always credited Michael Schumacher with an amazing ability to race with a big chunk of mental capacity in reserve. As soon as you get your helmet on, you get into a different zone.” I don’t need to think about which state of mind I need to be in when I get into the car. “I just jump in the car and go as fast as I can. Genetic predisposition is one thing, but the self-belief comes from some other sanctified place. So while he might still seem young, the pressure of F1 is of little consequence to Max. I think I made more sacrifices, preparing everything.” It was more like a job, 8am until 10pm, I was hardly at home. I was his mechanic, van driver, engine tuner, seven days a week. “I was always racing with him, my social life was basically not there. I didn’t really care about the rest,” Verstappen Senior says. For any ambitious parent – or indeed child – it’s proof that the path to outlier-dom is tough everything else is left simmering on a distant back burner. As soon as you get your helmet on, you get into a different zoneįrom running his own kart team, Jos soon realised what he had on his hands and turned his attentions exclusively to his son. I just jump in the car and go as fast as I can. But he was in love with motor racing, so I never really had to think about it.” The former Benetton and Arrows F1 driver, and a man not renowned for his infinite patience, almost snorts with derision. I ask Jos Verstappen how he would have reacted if his son had suddenly lost interest and succumbed to the temptations that every teenager falls prey to sooner or later. It’s a big risk to step out of education, of course, but luckily it worked out.” For me, what I loved was being at the track. ![]() School?īut surely he missed out on things… a normal childhood interrupted. Inevitable it may have been, a regular occurrence it was not. “My dad kept telling me, ‘you know there will be a moment where somebody will beat you.’ And I always thought, ‘how will that feel?’ There was a race where I came second, when I went off the track and came back… it didn’t feel nice, I can tell you. Verstappen’s gifts saw him win 68 out of 70 kart races he took part in, regularly trouncing older kids. My dad was hard on me, I had to help clean and maintain the karts, it wasn’t a playground, you know? He knew what it took to become an F1 driver, so I think he was preparing me for that from a very young age, even if I didn’t like it much in the beginning.” “But that’s no guarantee because we’ve seen many karting talents drop away, or guys who weren’t that good in karts excel in cars. “I definitely got the genes, and the karting went well,” Verstappen says with masterful understatement. He said, ‘wait until you’re six.’ I started crying and didn’t stop for days and days, until my mum called him and said, ‘I think we need to buy him a kart now.’” I saw him on the track, and said, ‘I want to do that.’ My dad was still in F1 at the time, so I asked him. My friend, still one of my best friends now, was three when he started. He was just four when he first sat in a kart, and began competing when he was seven. The son of ex-F1 driver Jos Verstappen and Belgian karting star Sophie Kumpen, Max was never going to become an accountant. ![]()
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