Max Verstappen might have made F1 seemingly boring for fans, but his generational talent simply cannot be overlooked. He placed the Netherlands on the sporting map in a way that even the Johan Cruyff-led Dutch soccer team couldn’t. The Red Bull star, to this day, attributes his success to his father Jos Verstappen’s sacrifices and constant efforts. However, financially, it wasn’t just his father and family that contributed to his F1 dream.
Formula 1 is a money game as much as it is about the racing. Billions of bucks are exchanging hands and drivers spend millions to just ascend the motorsport ladder into F1. Verstappen too had to do the same to make it to the pinnacle of motorsport. Notably, because of his unconcealed gift of racing, the Dutch Royal National Autosport Federation KNAF also reportedly invested in his journey for two years right before Red Bull gave him his debut with Toro Rosso, which the KNAF Chairman Maarten van Wesenbeeck recently talked about.
“Of course, Max would have been there without the KNAF, but we were certainly able to help. Especially financially,” the Chairman told formule1.nl. “It is a misconception that Jos paid for it all himself. That was not possible, it is really a lot of money and we as the KNAF were able to help with that in the last two years before he made his F1 debut,” he further added.
And it seems that even the three-time World Champion is aware that there were a lot of sacrifices made for him. Perhaps that would explain why the driver takes his losses so seriously. Reportedly, during one such instance where he lost to Sergio Perez, he had promised his father that he was not going to lose another race to the Mexican driver during that particular season.
Max Verstappen takes his vows seriously
The Dutchman is known for his aggressive racing and not leaving any stone unturned to taste victory. But in 2023 at the Azerbaijan GP, his teammate Sergio Perez took the win and then labeled himself as a championship contender. That loss did not go down well with Verstappen and he promised his father that he would never lose to his teammate again, according to Indian racer Karun Chandhok.
“I saw Jos Verstappen in Qatar, an evening after Max clinched the championship..We were chatting about the season, then he said to me that Max was furious after Baku. When he came home, he said to his dad ‘I’m not going to get beaten by him ever again this season. Lo and behold, he was right,” said Chandhok said on the Sky Sports podcast
