Although Max Verstappen and Michael Schumacher are not related, their families are very close. Hence, this is often one of the top queries that emerge on search engines. The Dutchman since a very young age has referred to Schumacher as his “uncle“.
The friendship of the two families began back in the 1990s when Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, was teammates with Schumacher at Benetton. Although Jos and Michael had a rivalry on the track, they maintained a strong relationship over the years.
The same carried over even with their children. Despite competing against each other in F1, the two families would often go on vacations together. Since the Verstappens and Schumachers were so close, Max revealed once in an interview that he never saw the legendary German driver as a world champion. For him, he was always “Uncle Michael“.
“I was three or four years old then. All I knew was that it was Uncle Michael, who was very nice, who was an extremely big family man. But I never saw him as a record world champion,” said Max Verstappen in an interview with f1-insider.com.
In the same interview, Max also revealed how their two families would also go for karting together. The 26-year-old revealed that his father would kart alongside him, while Michael would kart with his children, Mick and Gina.
Since the two families shared such a tight bond, both Jos and Michael always dreaded that their children would compete against each other in F1. As it so happened, Mick and Max indeed did compete against each other until the former found himself without a seat due to his struggles at Haas.
Jos and Michael were always concerned about their children
18 years ago, Jos Verstappen and Michael Schumacher shared an intriguing conversation that came to light once again when their sons competed against each other in F1. At the time, Jos was driving for Arrows. On the other hand, Michael was driving for Ferrari and competing to win his fifth championship in 2002.
In an interview back then, they were asked about whether they would argue if their sons competed against each other in the sport. In reply, Michael said (as quoted by news.com.au), “We have never had any sort of argument in our friendship. I think this could be the first we’re going to have some argument if our two would be racing each other“.
Jos too agreed with Michael that there was a high possibility that their sons could be rivals since they were of a similar age. The only thing Jos was clear about was that he would give it his all to help Max succeed in whichever sport his son wanted to pursue.
The 51-year-old stated that if Max wanted to compete in soccer, for example, then he would find the best team possible for his son to get a contract with. As for Michael, he joked at the time that he would rather have Mick compete in golf or horse riding since they seemed more intriguing. Jos too quipped on this, saying that even tennis may be a better sport than racing for Max and Mick.
