Verstappen was hard on his son: "I don't think it was easy for Max"

Max was a "stupid pig"

Verstappen has now completed six seasons in Formula 1 and is one of the great drivers of the youth with ten victories. However, the road to the top was not always easy. With Jos, Max had a father who could help a lot to reach that top, but he also demanded a lot from Max.

"I was relazed myself, which my father didn't always like. How many times have I heard that I would become a truck driver because I was so relaxed and lazy according to him. "Goddamn", "Stupid Pig". All that kind of thing. "You're never going to make it." That sums up time very well. My father was always very strict with me when things went less well or when I didn't do my best," the Dutchman said in the new series from Ziggo.

Verstappen wants to prove himself

However, that has helped Verstappen to get that far, he believes. "That motivated me more to show it to my father. That it was possible, that I was fast enough and that I had enough commitment. My father always wanted to get the best out of it and he certainly did."

In the series, other people also have their say outside of Verstappen. An important role is also reserved for Helmut Marko, for example. He knew very quickly that with the arrival of Verstappen, he would get the whole package, as he himself calls it in the series. Raymond Vermeulen and Jos are part of it.

Jos was a tough teacher

"I don't think it was easy for Max. Jos was a very good teacher but also a very tough one for such a young boy," Marko says about Jos. David Coulthard also sheds light on it. "How Jos gave Max the opportunity and devoted himself to it is very inspiring. It shows what you can achieve through total dedication and your commitment to developing a boy into a young man," said the former Formula 1 driver.

Jos himself also tells about the moments when he was really angry with his son and left him at a gas station, but according to Jos, it was all with one goal in mind. "I tried to prepare Max as best I could. I really did everything about it. But really everything," concludes the former F1 driver who seems reasonably successful in his goal.

This article was written and originally published by Tim on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.