Verstappen, Max

Max is from a motorsport family: his father Jos participated in Formula 1 from 1994 to 2003, his mother Sophie Kumpen participated in karting tournaments at a young age, and Uncle Anthony and Grandfather Paul competed in GT racing ^[3] .

Although Verstappen's mother is Belgian and he himself was born and raised in Belgium, Max admits that he feels more Dutch, and therefore acts under a Dutch license ^[4] .

Karting

Verstappen began karting at four and a half years old ^[5] . In 2005, he became the silver medalist at the Limburgs Kart Championship in the Mini Junior class, and the next year he moved to Minimax, in which he became the champion in several series: Rotax Max Challenge Belgium (2006, 2007. 2008), Dutch championship Rotax Max, Rotax Max Challenge Belgium National (2007), BNL Kartins Series (2008), VAS Championship (2009); also in 2008 won the Belgian Championship in the Cadet class, and in 2009 in the KF5 class ^[2] .

In 2010, Max moved to the KF3 class, where he became the champion in the Bridgestone Cup Europe, WSK Nations Cup and WSK World Series, in 2010 and 2011 - WSK Euro Series. He then performed at KF2, where in 2012 he won the WSK Master Series, 17 ° Winter Cup, and in 2013 the South Garda Winter Cup. Also in 2013, the last karting season, he became the WSK Master Series champion in KZ2, WSK Euro Series in KZ1, CIK-FIA World Championship and CIK-FIA European Championship in KZ and CIK-FIA European Championship in KF ^{[ 2]} .

Formula 3

In 2014, Verstappen made his debut in an open-wheel series, taking part in the Formula 3 European Championship as part of the Van Amersfoort Racing team. For 33 races, he visited the podium 16 times: he won first place in the third race of the first stage at the Hockenheimring , in all races at the Spa-Francorsham and Norisring , in the first race at the Nurembergring , in the third race on the Imola circuit and in the first race of the second stage at Hockenheimring ; just scored 411 points and became the bronze medalist of the championship ^[2] .

Also in 2014, Max participated in two annual Formula 3 competitions: the Macau Grand Prix and the Formula 3 Master . In the Macau Grand Prix (in the Van Amersfoort Racing team), he showed the best lap of the race and took seventh place, and in the Formula 3 race the Master (in the Motopark team), which this year was called Zandvoort Masters ^[6] , taking the pole and showing the best circle, became the first ^[2] .

Formula 1

In July 2014, a message appeared that the Formula 1 team began to show interest in Max - Ferrari , Maclaren and Red Bull ^[7] , and in August it was officially announced that it would be included in the youth program The Red Bull was invited by Helmut Marco ^[8] , after which he became a test pilot at Toro Rosso . A few years later, in July 2018, Nicky Lauda said that the Mercedes team tried to sign a contract with the Dutch driver, but the Red Bull got ahead of them ^[9] .

Verstappen took part in the free practice of the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014, thereby becoming the youngest pilot to take part in the Formula 1 stage ^[10] .

Later, in August 2014, the Toro Rosso team announced the signing of a contract with Max, according to which he became its combat pilot in the 2015 season ^[11] . Verstappen made his debut at the age of 17, as a result of which he set a new record - he became the youngest pilot in the history of Formula 1 ^[12] . In four races of the season he got out, and for the remaining 15 races he finished nine times in the points zone, scored 49 points in total and took 12th place in the individual competition ^[2] .

For more than half the season, Verstappen spoke in Formula 1, not yet having a driver's license. He received them only on the day of his majority - September 30, 2015 ^[13] .

In 2016, Max spent the first four stages of the season with Scuderia Toro Rosso ^[2] , and from the fifth stage he performed at Red Bull Racing , where he replaced Daniil Kvyat ^[14] . May 15, 2016, at the age of 18 years and 227 days, Verstappen won the race of the Spanish stage of the season, thereby becoming the youngest Grand Prix winner in the history of Formula 1 ^[15] . In the standings in 2016 with 204 points scored became the fifth ^[16] .

In 2017, he climbed the podium four times, became the winner of the race two times, finished the season in sixth place. In 2018, he visited the podium eleven times, won two victories again, and became the fourth according to the results ^[2] .

Season 2019 Max started better than the previous one, often finishing literally on the verge of the podium. In the first eight races, he twice occupied the bottom step of the podium. After that, the results went up: he won the stages in Austria ^[17] and Germany ^[18] , and in Hungary lost the victory to Hamilton only in the last laps. Currently, Verstappen with a wide margin takes third place in the championship, the lag behind Bottas second place is only seven points.

General statistics

Formula 1

• Official Website (eng.) (Nid.)

• Profile (English) on Driver Database
• Profile (German) on Speedsport magazine website
• Profile (Russian) on wildsoft.motorsport.com