The hottest property in F1 right now is Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen who has been exceptional since making his debut back in 2014. Max started his journey at Toro Rosso and then moved to Red Bull and became F1’s youngest point scorer and race winner at the age of just 18.
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Max Verstappen was born in Belgium, to a Dutch father (former F1 driver, Jos Verstappen) and a Belgian mother. He may have lived in Belgium and travels on a Belgium passport but he told a Belgian Newspaper back in 2014, “I have lived in Belgium my entire life, but I consider myself Dutch”. The main reason behind him saying this is because of his Karting activities with his father. As a result, he used to spend more time with his father than with his mother and was always surrounded by Dutchmen.
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Both of Max’s parents were into racing at some point in their life. His mother Sophie Kumpen was a successful karting driver in her early days, and his father Jos Verstappen raced in Formula 1 for nine seasons with people calling him “The Dutch Devil” and “Jos The Boss”. Jos was considered the most successful Dutch F1 racing driver before he retired and then began mentoring his son Max. Jos only scored two podium finishes in his career in the F1 and even partnered Michael Schumacher, but is also known for his narrow escape at the Hockenheim fire in the pitlane, which took place in 1994.
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Max Verstappen was clearly a child prodigy but what really made the racing world take notice when Max came into racing was his seven consecutive wins in his time in Formula 3. His first three victories came at Spa-Francorchamps and then he took P1 at the Norisring, adding three more victories to his name and then went home to Zandvoort where he clinched his seventh consecutive win and suddenly became a name that made waves across motorsport paddocks.
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Max proved himself to be worthy of the Red Bull Racing team after his wonderful time at the Red Bull junior team – Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri). In doing so, he opened the eyes of many teams and made them change their recruitment method. Verstappen proved to become a huge asset for Red Bull and showed what today’s young drivers are capable of. Max perhaps paved the may for the younng brigade in F1, as after his move to Red Bull, many rookies made their way into big teams like Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, George Russell and Pierre Gasly.
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When Max joined Formula 1, he didn’t even have legal permission to drive a car as he was just 17 years and 166 days old which made him the youngest driver to sit in a Formula 1 car. Verstappen also became the youngest driver to ever score a point in F1, where he finished P7 at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2015. Then in 2016 with his move to Red Bull, he became the youngest race winner at the age of 18 years at the Spanish Grand Prix.
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Max Verstappen’s salary in 2016 was closer to $600,000 when he joined Red Bull, but with him showing rapid improvement on the track, Red Bull kept increasing his salary year by year. In 2017, his salary reached a total of $3 million, and then in 2018, it jumped straight to $10 million. Currently, the Dutch star has an annual salary of $25 million with a Net worth of over $60 million. Mind-blowing!
[Image Credit: Max Verstappen]
Shashank Iyer