Many of Max Verstappen’s rivals early in his motor racing career reckoned it was inevitable he would end up in Formula 1.
Not only because of his obvious ability, but also due to the unique schooling his father Jos Verstappen, a veteran of more than 100 grand prix starts, was able to give him. The lengths he went to prepare his young son for the rigours of F1 have been widely reported and even drawn some criticism.The young Verstappen had a tremendously successful karting career. But the demands of preparing, testing and racing left him time for little else.
Now on his way to his third consecutive world championship in as many seasons, he has no doubt the sacrifices he made in his youth to get where he is were worthwhile. Speaking exclusively to RaceFans at Monza, Verstappen says he was always willing to accept that committing himself to go-kart racing when he was a child meant missing out on some opportunities.
“People always ask me, like, ‘didn’t you miss going out with friends?’ Because of course, you couldn’t do it as frequently as other people. But I’m like that’s fine, because most of my friends were anyway within the racing community.
“I knew what I was working for, so I was happily giving up that side of my life because I was anyway enjoying what I was doing. So for me, it was not very hard to give that up.”
Although he had some opportunities to spend time with friends at home, Verstappen’s eye remained fixed on his long-term goal.
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“Sometimes when I would be at home you would go out or just have a fun time with your friends. But then on the other I know that I only have one shot at this to try and get to Formula 1 and I will do everything I can.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Verstappen was not too disappointed at missing school in order to work on his karting. “People always complain about drivers, that they miss school because they try to pursue F1 or any race,” he says.
“But school you can always finish. This is not something that comes around once. This opportunity to get to Formula 1 only comes around once.”
Verstappen’s sister Victoria, who is almost three years younger than him, had the chance to follow her brother, father and kart-racing mother into motor racing. “I think she had a lot of potential,” says Verstappen.
F1 has finally woken up to the need to bring more women to reach the top flight of motor racing and formed the F1 Academy to encourage that. But Verstappen said his sister didn’t have the same appetite for racing when they were younger.
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“There were a few instances where my dad would spend two days preparing everything like he would do with me, making sure everything was perfect for her to drive. Then she would drive for like 20 laps, and then she’s like ‘that’s it for me for today’. And then my dad would get quite annoyed.”
“I think my sister probably had the same amount of talent as I had when I was little, but she just didn’t want it enough. She liked it but not enough to, like, fight for it, be fit, be ready. That’s fine, as long as you realise that.
“My dad was, anyway, mainly focussed on me. But then if you really want it, if you really want to fight for it, even when let’s say your dad is not really focussed on you, if you make him realise, make him see that ‘I want to do this as well’ – I was 100% sure that my dad would have gone all the way for her as well. But my dad didn’t feel it, she didn’t want it enough.”
Verstappen is rewriting the history books with his current run of success. Three days after speaking to RaceFans at Monza he became the first Formula 1 driver ever to win 10 consecutive grands prix. His third world championship already seems to be little more than a formality.
But you might not think that to listen to his radio sometimes. He may be winning races with more than half a minute in hand over the next car which isn’t a Red Bull, but Verstappen is unrelentingly focused on honing his RB19 yet further. Snippy exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase are not uncommon.
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That utter focus on improvement is “also the way I grew up”, says Verstappen. “Always wanting more, never being satisfied and just keep working.
The memory of the years before his breakthrough title win in 2021 also motivates Verstappen’s pursuit of perfects. “I know, I’ve been on the other side as well, and that’s why I really want to enjoy what we’re doing right now and, of course, try to make it last as long as possible.”
When RaceFans last spoke exclusively to Verstappen during the 2022 season, he had come off the back of a hard fight for Lewis Hamilton to win his first title and was in the middle of overcoming Charles Leclerc’s early lead to claim his second. Today Verstappen is undoubtedly having an easier time of it – Red Bull are undefeated so far this year.
The combination of that enviable position at the front of the pack and Verstappen’s growing experience only makes Verstappen a more effective competitor – not a comforting thought for his rivals.
“I’ve done it now for quite a few years and I think you learned a lot over those years of how you manage a weekend. And at the moment I’m very relaxed.
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“Of course it helps when you have a good car. But I think it’s a lot easier now to just be in the paddock, do your thing, switch off, be ready and try to do the best you can throughout the weekend.”
No doubt Verstappen is making it appear easy at the moment. But there is a lot of work, preparation and sacrifice behind that success.
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Alan Dove
8th September 2023, 13:18
“Verstappen’s sister Victoria, who is almost three years younger than him, had the chance to follow her father and brother into motor racing. “
*and mother. :)
MacLeod (@macleod)
8th September 2023, 13:39
Victoria was indeed very good too bad she didn’t wanted to continue otherwise we would had 2 Verstappens in the field :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2023, 13:54
Apologies, terrible oversight by me there – I’ve revised it.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
8th September 2023, 13:28
These interviews show how committed you have to be to succeed in F1 and the sacrifices that all athletes including super talents like Max have to make along the way.
In fact, the less talented ones may have to sacrifice more to have a shot. Great interview!
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
8th September 2023, 14:47
Resberg proved that what you say is true. He invested so much in his championship winning year that he just did not want to do it again. In constrast Hamilton seems to be doing this more naturally.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
8th September 2023, 14:52
I think it mostly goes to show that there’s no mythical “talent” that makes you the best at things. Sure, there are perhaps some genetics that make you predisposed to be better at certain tasks (or worse), like eye-hand-coordination. But when people talk about Max having so much “raw talent” I always shake my head because it sounds to me like all you’re doing by saying it like that is diminishing the amount of effort it must’ve taken him to get to that level and stay there. He didn’t just wake up a multiple F1 champion one day, after all. Neither did Hamilton or Schumacher or any of them.
Same goes for many athletes inside and out of motorsport. Most of the top household names have similar stories of dedicating their lives from early youth to their craft, they worked for that stuff.
Coventry Climax
8th September 2023, 16:12
The word ‘talent’ is also applied in the (insanely competitive) world of musicians, a world I spent many years in.
An internal clock, sense of rythm, a fabulous hearing of tone, intervals and timbre, outstanding locomotion, a quick mind; these are all aspects, but certainly not all of them, that make up ‘talent’.
Some musicians have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes them great. Because of the “I don’t know what”, that makes it hard to explain and describe, but the words ‘magic talent’ come close.
Believe me, without talent, a musician can put in 24hrs of practice for 365 days a year and many years in a row, and still never get anywhere all the same.
The other way round, a massive amount of talent and no practice at all, gets you at that exact same location; nowhere.
Fortunately, most people without talent are wise enough to not try and waste serious effort on it.
Unfortunately, some not recognising they are without talent still seriously try – and end up sour because the effort they put in doesn’t bring them the success others get with that same amount of effort.
Then there’s the occasional musician that has the talent and the dedication, and those are unbeatable and go down in history.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th September 2023, 17:33
Agree, talent matters to an extent and I think verstappen had a lot of natural one, but also true you don’t go anywhere if you don’t try hard enough with it; another environment where people think it’s all about talent is chess, and again there’s surely a part in that, but trying to improve and experience play a big part too, with some people having played 400.000 games or something like that and the more casual players a few hundreds and beginners 10-20.
Elgsdyr
8th September 2023, 17:44
As a fellow musician for 35 years, I agree 100%. Talent is a real thing but you have to apply the work for that talent to unfold. This doesn’t happen by itself. Without talent you can learn to play the notes but the music isn’t there.
greasemonkey
9th September 2023, 2:09
Yes, the best of all have both of those, plus one more thing further. Irreverence to constraints, but with respect for what came before.
EVH and Max are (were) similar animals. Blurring the lines in sim and real life technique is not really all that much mentally different than blurring Holdsworth with Clapton.
MichaelV12 (@michaelv12)
9th September 2023, 11:24
+1 from another old musician. Agree 100%.
MacLeod (@macleod)
11th September 2023, 7:36
I am afraid to disagree with you, for example while my drawings are good (which proof my family by saying that i had talent for drawing) a childhood friend of mine who went to the academic of art was always beter in drawing then me while i was praticing all the time he did other things and still he was beter then me so i went doing technical things and he to the academic of arts.
So the mystic talent does excist but someone with natural talent WHO does pratice hard Always is beter then someone who pratice hard but miss that spark (he could produce still nice things but compared with the one with natural talent (who also works hard) is like Rembrand vs van Gogh
Coventry Climax
11th September 2023, 23:50
@macleod
Excuse me???????
Rembrandt van Rijn vs van Vincent van Gogh?
And which one of the two just worked hard and had no talent, in your opinion?
What you say is correct, in my opinion, but the comparison makes no sense at all.
drmouse (@drmouse)
8th September 2023, 15:34
WRT the linked story, I don’t think that was Jos trying to prepare his son, it was Jos losing his temper and abandoning his son in anger.
And even if it was a calculated action to attempt to prepare Max for F1, that’s even worse. It’s not an action which will prepare a child for anything except being abandoned by those they trust.
This one example shows what many have to go through, though. Even if she had wanted to progress to the top levels of motorsport, she was already at a disadvantage because Jos was focussing on his son’s racing, not his daughter’s. Of course, if she wanted to, she would have fought for it, but she would have had to fight harder than Max did. Even with equal talent, the road would have been harder for her than for Max purely from the family dynamic, before we even get to the opinions and attitudes of everyone else.
Saying “If they want it, they’ll fight for it” is actually an acknowledgement that it is more difficult for a person/group.
Coventry Climax
8th September 2023, 16:21
I think you are reading more than is said.
We know -thankfully- nothing much about the Verstappen family situation apart from the juicy things that make it to the press, and we do not know to what extent Jos was supportive of Victoria’s wishes or passions.
Miane
8th September 2023, 17:43
Why people like you use so much of your time and thinking to judge the life of others? Who you think you’re to judge his family? Have you been there with them all the time? Oh no, you did read it anywhere and thinks you’re completely capable of emitting your fair judgement.
Coventry Climax
8th September 2023, 22:09
Miane, by saying ‘people like you’, without even knowing @drmouse, you’re making a very similar judgement, actually.
I don’t always agree with drmouse – actually none of us here constantly agree with one another – , but this is not a fair comment regarding drmouse.
It’s difficult, and I certainly make mistakes here too, but shouldn’t we try to stick to the contents and just comment on that?
Jeffrey Powell
8th September 2023, 15:54
First let me say Max’s. performances are awesome to watch ,he has honed his skills to the highest level. But those skills have been developed over virtually his whole life from a very young age with the advantage as he admits of a driven and super knowledgeable father with very strong connections, whatever we may think of him.
To be that far ahead of the opposition in what would be termed as the modern era it seems a totally committed racing upbringing is a necessity.
It has not always been thus and a so called natural ability was easy to judge, two drivers who showed the sort of domination similar to that of Max and Lewis over the rest of the field were Jimmy Clark and Jackie Stewart. Neither had the intense racing learning in there youth but boy did they destroy some racing ego’s. So I believe there can be natural ability but in today’s F1 it can’t shine through .
David BR (@david-br)
8th September 2023, 17:03
That’s a complicated and self-fulfilling dynamic. Which came first: his sister realizing their dad was focused on her brother (male child) as a driver, or their dad not ‘feeling’ that she (female child) wanted to become a driver ‘enough’?
Alan Dove
9th September 2023, 8:56
That quote in its full context
“There were a few instances where my dad would spend two days preparing everything like he would do with me, making sure everything was perfect for her to drive. Then she would drive for like 20 laps, and then she’s like ‘that’s it for me for today’. And then my dad would get quite annoyed.”
Her mother was a top-level kart driver too so didn’t have to look far for a role model.
That quote is someone, who despite had everything there, had the self-confidence to say “not for me”.
David BR (@david-br)
9th September 2023, 20:41
I know and it’s well possible. However, the dynamic Max describes isn’t about her saying “not for me” but about his dad (and Max) saying not wanting it “enough”. Like I said, that’s more complicated.
Alan Dove
9th September 2023, 21:03
That may be, but karting isn’t free. A day’s karting can cost minimum 150 quid. That’s just entry, fuel and travel. That’s not including the kart and tyres. I am just talking testing here, the bare minimum.
I see a LOT of parents sinking tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) into their kid’s racing because the kid simply didn’t say “20 laps is fine can we go home”. Taken at face value that demonstrates supreme self confidence at a young age for Victoria.
If there is something worse for a kid not getting a chance who wanted it, is a kid getting a chance who didn’t want it.
Jos had to make a decision and by the sounds of it he gave Victoria an opportunity and she didn’t want it.
melanos
8th September 2023, 17:25
The quality I do appreciate the most in Max Verstappen is his sprezzatura, the way he is doing something enormously difficult seem effortlessly easy.
Tiaki Porangi
8th September 2023, 22:54
ME, my, me me me!
James Bond (@jamesbond)
8th September 2023, 23:08
Good article!