Max Verstappen has said the “tough” approach from his father Jos prepared him to deal with the pressure of Red Bull.
With Helmut Marko at the helm, the company became known for its cut-throat approach to young talent, with names like Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne and now Carlos Sainz not making the eventual jump to the senior team.
As for the Dutchman, he arrived at Toro Rosso at the start of 2015 and less than 25 races into his career he was at Red Bull, replacing Daniil Kvyat.
“All my life I worked together with my dad, and he is very tough too,” Max was quoted by PlanetF1. “Ultimately, that’s a good thing. It brought me to F1, of course with the support of Red Bull and Helmut.”
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Verstappen has had his own blips, however, none more so than the start of this past season when he was involved in incidents with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo at three consecutive races and had other moments.
“You have to stay critical and that was necessary after those weekends in China and Monaco,” he admitted in reflection. “We talked about it. These things can happen but sometimes you need to go through it to become stronger.”
After the race in Monte Carlo, the 21-year-old would completely turn his year around with 10 podiums in 15 races and two wins, including his main highlight of 2018 in Austria.
“It was amazing, especially with so many Dutch fans there,” Verstappen smiled. “It was awesome to win with a Red Bull Racing car at the Red Bull Ring. It was unbelievable.
“I didn’t expect it the night before the race. The race panned out a bit like the 2016 one, only this time it was for the win.”