“I burn a candle and make a prayer for Max Verstappen”: Sophie Kumpen reveals how she prays for her son’s success in Formula 1

Max Verstappen made his F1 debut at the very young age of 17 and has taken the sport by storm since then. Despite being so young, he stood out and became F1’s youngest-ever race winner at 18 in his debut Red Bull race.

Fast forward to 2022, he is a two-time World Champion with Red Bull. A lot of times, his father’s name comes up when people talk about his rise to the top. Jos Verstappen had his way of dealing with his son during his junior career, which plenty of people criticized. Even Red Bull’s chief advisor Helmut Marko considers it ‘harsh treatment’. There are also many people who claim that Verstappen is only as good as he is because of Jos’ strict treatment.

However, his mother Sophie Kumpen also played a huge role in developing Verstappen’s racing career. Of course, the Red Bull ace spent the majority of his young days with his father but his mother was a prominent name in the racing circuit as well.

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Sophie Kumpen was always praying for Max Verstappen in a church

In an interview with WagsF1, Kumpen revealed how she prays and cheers for Verstappen from back home. She usually spends Grand Prix weekends in her home town where she goes to the church and lights a candle for Verstappen. Kumpen then makes a prayer and sends a picture to her son.

“In F1, since Max’s first win race for Red Bull. I’ve started since to burn a candle,” Kumpen said. “And now I’m doing it every race on Thursday. I go to the little church here in town and I burn a candle and make a prayer then, I send the picture to Max.”

When asked if she gives Verstappen any advice she said that she didn’t need to. However, since she herself is passionate about racing, they have plenty of conversations regarding his Grand Prix weekends.

Verstappen’s mother calls out Sergio Perez after recent controversy

The ending to Sunday’s Sao Paolo GP was hugely controversial due to Verstappen refusing to help teammate Sergio Perez out. The latter wanted to finish P6 to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc in their fight for P2, but Verstappen did not let him through. This led to a lot of backlash aimed towards the 2022 World Champion on social media.

Soon, however, it was Verstappen’s mother Sophie Kumpen who was under fire. The 47-year-old took a dig towards Perez on Instagram, calling him out for allegedly ‘cheating on his wife’. This was in reference to Perez’s Monaco GP afterparty that was leaked online.

Fans felt that this was a very unnecessary remark made by Kumpen who has since deleted the comment.

Also read: Max Verstappen’s mother calls out Sergio Perez for cheating in Monaco; fumes F1 twitter