- Jos Verstappen has been heavily involved in his son’s Max’s F1 career
- The pair have not always seen eye-to-eye, and have clashed at times
- Max has recalled one particular argument that he had with his dad in 2012
Max Verstappen has recalled a major bust-up with his father that led to him being left at a petrol station.
Verstappen sealed his fourth F1 world title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend, and has dominated the sport in recent years.
His dad, Jos, a former F1 driver in his own right, has been with him every step of the way, but their relationship has not always been a perfect one.
Max, 27, has now opened up on the time Jos drove off without him after he blew his chance to win the Karting World Championship when he was only a teenager in 2012.
‘That was the first opportunity for me to win the World Championship,’ Max explained on Viaplay’s Max Verstappen: Anatomy of a Champion documentary.
‘I stayed in the lead at the start but then I got passed. I was so upset that I tried to pass the guy back in a place that was unnecessary [and spun off].
‘My dad was just so upset with me, doing that stupid move. I basically threw everything away. Of course, I was very sad and upset with myself for making that mistake.
‘I then started to try to talk to him in the van, travelling home for 17 hours. He didn’t want to talk to me. He was just so fed up with it. He’s like, “Get out”. He stopped at the fuel station and he’s like, “You get out”. And he drove off.’
Jos has become known for his hands-on approach when it comes to Max’s career, and has not been afraid to ruffle a few feathers at Red Bull over the years.
Reflecting on his rise to the top, Max revealed that his father has always been demanding, and it has caused some friction between the pair.
He added: ‘My dad, it didn’t matter if it was cold, warm, dry, wet, he was out there [saying] like, “Every lap you make a mistake in that corner, you’re not doing it right”, these kind of things. Always constantly trying to improve me, you know? And sometimes it got a bit heated.’
Jos has received criticism for his parenting, with some even suggesting his treatment of Max in his younger years amounted to abuse.
But Jos has refuted these claims, and outlined in the documentary why he has always been so hard on his son.
‘People say how bad a father I was to him, to abuse your child,’ Jos said. ‘I never abused him, I was teaching him.
‘I was hard on him and that was also the plan [for him], to learn, to think. A lot of people have no idea what you have to do to arrive to the top of a sport.’
