It is quite known that Jos Verstappen was a massive force in building Max Verstappen’s future in Formula 1. In doing so, the former F1 driver spent $1 Million on his son’s career.
After Jos could not find a drive for himself for the 2004 season, he focused his attention on his son’s racing career. He paid for everything that led Max to the track and helped him get to the pinnacle of motorsport.
A report in Business F1 Magazine(Dec 2021) revealed that sometimes Jos didn’t even have the money. Furthermore, the magazine stated that the investment his father made is the reason why Verstappen feels indebted and loyal to his father.
How Max Verstappen made his way to the top?
Like many other drivers, Verstappen began his career at a very young age. He began karting at the age of four and competed in the Mini Junior Karting championship in Belgium in 2001.
He finally began to compete seriously at the age of 11 in the Minimax class and won the Belgian championship in 2006. He continued with this in 2007 and won the Dutch Minimax championship.
At the age of 14, in 2011 Verstappen won the WSK Master Series in the KF2 class. In the following year, he also won the European KF and KZ championships at Varennes-sur-Allier in France.
Then finally at the 2015 Australian GP, Verstappen who was just 17 years and 166 days old raced for the first time in F1. And the rest is history.
Christian Horner downplays Verstappen’s retirement from the sport
Following the conversations about introducing more sprint races into the F1 calendar, Verstappen recently said that he isn’t sure if he would like to continue with so many modifications.
Having signed a long-term deal with Red Bull while dominating the sport, the Dutchman has also been questioned about his future plans.
Team Principal Christian Horner has given his insight on the matter. He said, “Max is his own man and he’s very, very strong in his opinions and his outlook on what he wants to do in his life.”
Horner further said that he does not see Verstappen following the footsteps of Fernando Alonso and racing at the age of 41 or 42. Maybe not in F1, but it is certain that Verstappen would try his hands out in other series of racing.
“If he’s not racing on track at the moment, he’s racing in the virtual world, he’s driving GT cars for fun, and his passion is just driving and racing, and while that burns within him, he’s going to keep going.
“But how long that burns for, that’s each individual’s own journey, they’ve got to find that out for themselves,” Horner further added.
