Like a True Champion
© CODE Sports
It’s 2001. A four-year-old boy named Max climbs into a go-kart for the first time under the watchful eye of his parents, Jos and Sophie.
Max grows up with a single goal: to become the best Formula 1 driver.
This goal was as much his as it was his father’s, who also showed precocious talent in the early years of his career, although he never managed to bring home a world title. Father Jos retired from racing in 2003 to devote himself entirely to the development of young Max’s career.
Jos tolerated no mistakes, and little Max grew up under strict rules that allowed for nothing less than perfection and control. These rules were similar to those he would later encounter in the world of motorsport and came as no surprise to Max, who had learned to walk with the coldness of a father who did not reach out to him.
In Max’s world, making a mistake meant being abandoned by his father at a petrol station at the age of 15 because he had lost a karting race.
Mistakes were costly and Max was well aware of this. He developed an armour in the form of a cold, calculating character, seemingly unflappable and invulnerable to the beatings he took.
Beatings that his mother, Sophie, suffered and that led her to accuse Jos of abuse and that forced Max, who remained by his father’s side, to separate from his sister, Victoria, and his mother, who had given up her own karting career to concentrate on her family and little Max.
© The Sports Rush
But Max never lost sight of his goal and, at the age of 17, became the youngest driver ever to enter Formula 1. Too many mistakes, too aggressive, some said, but behind his icy exterior, Max responded with results.
In 2021, in Abu Dhabi, Max won his first world title. A world championship full of lights, but mostly full of shadows. There was no mention of talent, only of budget cap and irregularities. Once again, Max was under the scrutiny, this time not from his father, but from the entire world of motorsport.
© The Telegraph
Without looking back or realising what he had achieved, he continued on his way.
Winning, winning and winning.
Some have come to appreciate his talent, while others still believe he is too dependent on the car, which they believe is a guarantee of victory.
Only time will tell, but it might be too late to appreciate Max’s talent live in a Formula 1 car.
After this first championship, Max shows his other, more human side, aware that he has a future ahead of him in which, perhaps for the first time, F1 is not the only option. He is already a champion and will remain so until he wants to be. No pressure, no demands, his future is his own.
It’s 2001. A four-year-old boy named Max climbs into a go-kart for the first time.
It’s now 2023 and the little boy, now known as Verstappen, is celebrating his third consecutive world title and 50th F1 victory, still facing boos and jeers but always with his head held high.
Like a true champion.
