Max Verstappen once revealed the best piece of advice his strict father, Jos Verstappen, gave him in life. The Red Bull driver, who regards his father very high in life, opened up about the hard-hitting advice just ahead of the 2018 F1 season.
Speaking about it in an interview with GP Magazine, the Dutchman was asked about it. In reply, the two-time world champion, who was yet to win a championship back then said, “Stay with two feet on the ground.”
This shows the level of calmness, humility, and composure Verstappen Sr. instilled in his son, who’s a multiple world champion now. The Dutch pilot further added on the advice, “[if he’s not humble] Otherwise, he I will make sure I will be” on the journey to F1 championships.
Coming from a racing background where the Red Bull driver’s father was a former F1 driver and his mother was a former karting driver, Verstappen had immense backing from the family. However, with enough support to make him what he is today, Verstappen Sr. also made sure his F1 icon son stays humble.
The man behind Max Verstappen’s rise, Jos Verstappen
While the world sees a champion in the Red Bull driver, they often tend to miss out on what led to the making of such a beast. Verstappen, who’s a whole different breed for an F1 driver, had the most grooming from his stern father.
Verstappen Sr. was a man who wasn’t afraid to punish his son if things went south. If taken an incident, for example, the 51-year-old once left his son at a petrol station in Italy, when Max Verstappen’s careless crash cost him the world championship.
Max and his father Jos share a moment after winning the World Championship.
They’ve been on quite a journey together 🧡 pic.twitter.com/QMS8OAghWg
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) December 12, 2021
Known as his son’s personal coach, Verstappen Sr.’s life goal was to make his son a world champion. He invested himself hugely in the two-time world champion’s life to make him what he couldn’t achieve in his days as a racing driver.
Verstappen compared to Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher
The 25-year-old driver was recently compared to the likes of Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. Former F1 driver, Emanuele Pirro, compared the defending champion with that of the F1 greats.
Speaking about it in a recently published report by Gazzetta Motori, he said that Verstappen is in the position where Schumacher and Senna were in their prime.
Pirro also hailed the Dutchman’s insane ability to get into the race conditions with minimal steering wheel adjustments and considers him very strong both mentally and physically.
