“I said I wanted to drive”– Max Verstappen reveals his parents never influenced him to become F1 racing driver

Max Verstappen, despite being a second-generation F1 driver, never faced an influence from his parents to pursue a career in motorsports.

Max Verstappen is writing his own legacy in Formula 1 despite being the son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen. The Red Bull ace made his F1 debut in 2015 at the mere age of 17.

Now on the verge of winning his maiden championship, Verstappen has come a long way. It is natural to feel that he would have been influenced by his father to pursue a career in motorsports.

However, the Dutchman reveals it was nothing like that. He never was influenced to pick racing as a career. Instead, he admits, he called his father to become a race driver while the latter was in Canada. And initially, in response, he received a ‘no’ too.

“It was actually all my decision,” Max said in an interview with The Gentleman’s Journal. “After going to the go-kart track and seeing a younger kid driving around, I called my dad, who was in Canada for F1 at the time, and I said I wanted to drive.”

“Initially, he said no. He wanted me to wait two more years, but I did start half a year later, when I was four and a half, in go-karts.”

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Max Verstappen had no problem to adapt

Verstappen claims he never had a problem settling in F1, as he was used to facing a competition notch above his age. Therefore, it was easy to make an immediate impact when he arrived.

“I didn’t think about my age to be honest. I always drove in categories where I was the youngest. I was always racing against guys who were two to three years older, or even more.”

“Especially my final year in go-karting. I was 16 and I was racing against people in their late 20s and even 35-year-old guys. They were paid by the factories to stay in go-karting. So, I didn’t feel out of my comfort zone when I started in F1. I was like, well, I’m used to this.”

“Of course, I hadn’t done Formula 1 level racing before, but karting is kind of like it but in go-karts. I just never really thought about it – I was just very happy to be there and to try and get the best results.”

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