Jos Verstappen is confident his relationship with son Max will not deteriorate as his career progresses.
The former Benetton driver has been at the side of the 21-year-old throughout his racing life, watching him develop into one of the top Formula 1 drivers of today with Red Bull.
However, under the pressure that comes with F1, it was noted to Verstappen Sr. that Lewis Hamilton and his father Anthony eventually parted having worked together in a similar way.
“I think we will not come to that point that he thinks that way, because I really leave him, I let him do his own things,” Jos told the Beyond the Grid F1 podcast.
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“I always have my ears open and things like that, and also I’m not there to only do the complaining; ‘Oh Max, you shouldn’t do that…’ no. I also tell him what is good.
“We also have Raymond [Vermuelen, Max’s manager] in place, he speaks with him. We have a very good relationship also in private.”
For Verstappen Sr., while he arrived in F1 back in 1994 to much of the same expectation as Max did, also making the jump directly from F3, a poor first year at Benetton perhaps set his career back, stopping him from reaching his potential.
In many ways though, Jos admits his experience in F1 basically set him up to guide Max onto the grid.
“Exactly, that’s how I see it, you learn the most from your mistakes and I looked in the mirror, I knew exactly what I did wrong or didn’t do right and I tried to teach him the good things,” he said.
“He had so much faith in me because I was always on track and I was telling him things and there was never any question of his faith in me.
“Still now, when I see things happening we always speak, I mean he’s older now, he’s a real man he understands what he is doing, but we listen to each other.
“We don’t have to agree, but I know he listens to what I say because I’m here not to destroy him, but to help him and that’s how he looked at me.”
