Always on track, always the best
At 28 years old, Max Verstappen boasts a curriculum of four world titles, to which numerous F1 records obtained in his young career are added. An adventure, begun in the Circus at just 17 years old, in which he immediately stood out not only for his talent, but also for his extraordinary mental strength, allowing him to withstand the pressure of the highest open-wheel world championship on and off the track. A faculty that the Dutchman managed to develop due to the strictness of his father Jos, a former F1 driver, already from the time of his first races with go-karts.
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The training sessions
An implacable and rigorous training method that also impressed Helmut Marko, founder of the Red Bull Junior Team, who later promoted the Dutchman to Milton Keynes: “You always have to be first, the best”: these were the father’s words, and the son assimilated them literally – he recalled in an interview with Die Zeit – however, the exhausting training bordered on extreme. For example, near Milan, towards Lake Garda, there are two kart tracks where Max had to drive until his fingers turned blue. It didn’t matter if it was only 10 degrees or if it was raining, none of that mattered. But he still benefits from his father’s strictness. When Max goes out on track in bad weather, he is immediately two seconds faster than everyone else.”
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The difference with other drivers
Recalling other drivers present in the Red Bull academy, Marko believes that Verstappen’s training methods were extreme, to the point that other young people would hardly have been able to resist: “Not all boys would have psychologically survived something like that – he added – when Vettel sat in front of me, he had just won 18 out of 20 Formula BMW races. He was not satisfied with not having won the other two as well. That unstoppable will stuck with me. Verstappen gave the impression that his fifteen-year-old body housed the mind of a twenty-five-year-old. Max had a clear goal, which can partly be attributed to the extremely effective and rigorous training imparted to him by his father.”
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