Max Verstappen has, oftentimes, made overtaking look easy since making his debut in 2015. While it has become a norm to see the Dutchman repeatedly pull off stunning moves, his father Jos recently explained how it took him a long time to get there. He wasn’t born with this talent. He developed it over time.
Jos was the one who trained his son intending to make him a top star in F1. His methods, although deemed questionable because of the harshness, have worked. One of the main things Jos focused on was overtaking because without polishing Max‘s skills on that front, there was no way he would have become a four-time World Champion.
“Overtaking was a huge topic for me when training Max, because, in my opinion, you can also overtake incorrectly,” Jos began said to Speedweek. “If he lost time during an overtaking maneuver, I tried to explain to him how he could do it better“.
With practice, Max became so good at overtaking that Jos would deliberately ask him to try and make moves in the corners. “You can only attack here, here, and there, but not anywhere else,” Jos recalled telling Max. “And those were corners where the others might not attack because it is much more difficult“.
Max Verstappen holds the record for most overtakes in a single F1 season, with 78 incredible moves in 2016! pic.twitter.com/FoViiNaonh
— M (@totalmaxv1) October 14, 2024
This was the kind of training that made Max capable of making overtakes in any part of any circuit. For Jos, “an overtaking maneuver is not a product of chance“.
Instead, the former F1 driver believes a driver has to “spy” on his rival’s weaknesses and decide on a spot that will help them pull off the most efficient overtake. Although Max certainly has this kind of quality ingrained in him today, some experts and rivals are not happy with the approach.
Verstappen won’t change his approach despite repeated criticism
With Max no longer driving the outright fastest car in 2024, he decided to push the rules to the limit and make some ultra-aggressive moves. He also crossed the line sometimes, for instance, at the Mexico City GP where his wheel-to-wheel battle with Lando Norris resulted in two 10-second time penalties for him.
Afterward, Norris stated that Verstappen himself would know whether he was in the wrong. Whether he would change himself or not, depended completely on him.
1996 F1 champion Damon Hill, however, went one step further in criticizing Verstappen as he referred to the 27-year-old’s maneuvers as “just daft and D*ck Dastardly stuff“.
Despite receiving such criticism, Verstappen insisted that he would not change his approach. In fact, he criticized his rivals for not having a “world champion mentality“. Someone who would not refrain from pushing the limits and if required, go over.
