WHEN young upstart Max Verstappen sprayed fizz from the podium in Abu Dhabi as seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton looked on glumly, it marked the start of a new era in Formula One.
The championship winner’s aggressive driving and outspoken comments have already riled many, including his British rival — and the young Dutchman admits his attitude comes from his fearsome father.
Jos “the Boss” Verstappen, 49, is a former F1 driver with a violent past, including an arrest for attempted murder, who has brutally driven on the career of his son.
And The Sun can reveal that the three-times-married father of five has been accused of taking his tough love approach to parenting too far.
Now the animosity between his son Max, 24, and Lewis, 36, could even outstrip the classic rivalries dotted throughout motor racing history — James Hunt v Niki Lauda in 1970s, Nigel Mansell v Nelson Piquet in the ’80s and 1990s aces Michael Schumacher v Mika Hakkinen.
Red Bull driver Max paid tribute to his dad after his win on Sunday, which saw him claim his first championship after he controversially overtook Hamilton on the final lap of the final race of the season.
Fighting back tears, he said: “My goal when I was little was to become a Formula One driver. You hope for wins, you hope to be on the podium and that, when they play the national anthem, you hope one day they play yours.
“And when you stand here and they tell you, you are the champion, it is something incredible.
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“Especially also my dad, some of the special moments we had here. All the things come to your mind, all the years we spent travelling for that goal and then everything comes together in the last lap. It’s insane.”
Jos, a former team-mate of F1 legend Schumacher, boasted that Sunday’s so-called “stolen” win — slammed by critics and subject of a possible legal action by Mercedes — is in his son’s DNA.
He said: “Max really deserved this championship. He kept fighting. He will always fight, that’s in his DNA, I guess.” Their relationship has not always been so cordial.
In 2012, when Max was just 15, his dad kicked him out of his van as punishment for crashing in the second lap of a world championship kart race in Sarno, near Naples, Italy.
The teen was abandoned at a petrol station until he was picked up by his mum, go-karting champion Sophie Kumpen, according to reports, and did not speak to his dad for a week.
Max later recalled: “I should have won that race easily. On the first lap, someone overtook me and I wanted to regain my position on the next lap.
“I tried to pass on a very fast turn. He didn’t see me and we hit.
“My dad worked very hard that weekend and I threw it all away. He was very angry and didn’t talk to me. On the way home, about five miles away, he said something to me and we ended up arguing.”
Jos admitted: “I didn’t speak to him for six or seven days.
“I knew what I was doing. I think it helped him and shaped him. It is not my job to advise him now.”
Jos is clearly not afraid of confrontation and in recent weeks he has been pouring fuel on the fire of his son’s rivalry
Jos inherited his no-nonsense approach to parenting from his own tough guy father Frans, a publican and later ice-cream parlour owner from southern Holland.
In 1998, just a year after Max was born, Jos and his dad were each given five-year suspended jail sentences for fracturing a man’s skull.
They reached an out-of-court settlement with the unnamed 45-year-old victim, who was part of a group that had been arguing with the Verstappens about who got to use a karting track in the Belgian town of Lanaken.
In December 2008, Jos was back in court in Tongeren having been charged with assaulting his wife of 12 years — Max’s mum — when his son was 11.
He was accused of using threatening language and there were also claims that his estranged wife’s tyres had been damaged three times.
Jos was cleared of assault but found guilty of sending threatening text messages and of violating a previous restraining order. He was fined and sentenced to three months probation.
In November 2011 it was reported that Jos assaulted his unnamed 24-year-old girlfriend in a hotel room in Venlo, Holland, after an argument got out of hand.
He denied the allegations saying: “There has been an altercation, yes, that’s all.” Then, in January 2012, he was arrested for attempted murder following claims that he drove a car into his ex-girlfriend in the Dutch city of Roermond.
He was released after two weeks in jail when the charge was withdrawn due to a lack of evidence.
Jos is clearly not afraid of confrontation and in recent weeks he has been pouring fuel on the fire of his son’s rivalry.
He slammed Hamilton’s Mercedes team after the Brit had a terrifying 180mph crash with his son at Silverstone this year. Max was in hospital having checks while Hamilton celebrated on the podium.
Jos said: “I never speak to Lewis. He doesn’t need to speak to me. I’m nothing to him. I respect him as a driver, but the rest . . . nothing.
“Max and Lewis only speak on the podium, very little. When I see Max with other drivers, I think they get on very well. But with Lewis, nothing. Lewis is in his own world.”
Max and Lewis are now neighbours in the tax haven of Monaco and would find they have a lot in common if they ever agreed to meet up for a drink.
So it was no wonder that Hamilton was so upset when, following Williams’ driver Nicholas Latifi’s smash five laps from the end of Sunday’s final Grand Prix, Max was allowed to overtake a safety car to catch him up for the last lap.
Critics believe the unusual decision was to create drama for the F1 documentary Netflix was filming, Drive To Survive. Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker tweeted afterwards: “What a joke. That stinks.”
Max and Lewis are now neighbours in the tax haven of Monaco and would find they have a lot in common if they ever agreed to meet up for a drink.
Hamilton was raised in Stevenage, Herts, and developed a passion for racing after his dad Anthony bought him a go-kart for Christmas when he was six.
Max started out riding a quad bike in his garden in the Belgian border town of Bree.
He was still a toddler when he threw such a bad tantrum demanding an upgrade that his mum phoned his dad, saying: “I think we have to buy Max a go-kart. Now.”
Hamilton’s dad worked multiple jobs to fund his son’s training and later became his manager.
Max spent winters skiing with F1 star Schumacher, 52, and his son Mick, now 22, until the race ace suffered serious brain injuries in a horror smash on the slopes of the French Alps.
When Max’s parents separated, he moved in with his dad. His sister Victoria, also a racing driver, lived with his mum.
Lewis became the first — and is still the only — black man to race in Formula One when he made his debut aged 23 in 2007.
Max was 17 years and 166 days old when he became the youngest ever F1 driver in 2015.
His aggressive style was branded “dangerous” in his early races — and his Brazilian model girlfriend Kelly Piquet, 33, admits it worries her.
There is nobody harder on me than my dad, no matter what other people say. It is never that hard, compared to him
Max Verstappen
Kelly — the daughter of ex-F1 champ Nelson Piquet, and who has a daughter from a relationship with Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, 27 — said: “I’m always super-excited to support him but I am nervous that he doesn’t get hurt in an accident.”
Finnish rival Kimi Räikkönen, now 42, warned Max “was going to cause a huge accident sooner or later”.
Max’s mentor, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, 48, admitted his driving was “on the edge”.
There was more upset when, after a collision with Canadian Lance Stroll, 23, Max used the words “retard” and “mongol” over the team radio at the Portuguese GP in October last year and was forced to apologise.
Lewis sacked his father during an alleged falling out in 2010 — but Max appears closer than ever with his.
He recently said: “My attitude all comes from my dad.
“There is nobody harder on me than my dad, no matter what other people say. It is never that hard, compared to him.”
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
