Another installment focusing on motorsport families, this article will take a look at the Verstappen family. Although there are a number of father/son/daughter racing drivers within motorsport, the Verstappen family take it one step further, with both the mother and father of Max Verstappen being ex-racing drivers. Sophie Kumpen and Jos Verstappen had successful racing careers of their own before they met each other and before Max came along. Let's see how their motorsport careers took shape.
Ladies First
When you think about Max Verstappen, it is natural to link him directly to his famous racing driver father, Jos. However, let's not forget Max's mother, Sophie Kumpen, who was a successful racing driver in her own right before parking her career in favor of supporting Jos and raising their young family.
Sophie was born in Belgium and began her karting career aged 10 years old. She was good and by the time she was 16, she was competing in the Formula A World Championship, finishing 9th overall in her first championship event. The next year, Sophie took part in the Karting World Championship, and ended the championship ahead of future Formula 1 driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, who went on to drive for Minardi, Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault, Force India and Ferrari.
What A Small World
Interestingly, Christian Horner OBE, the Team Principal of Max's current Formula 1 team, Red Bull Racing Honda, raced against Sophie back in 1989 in the Karting World Championship, with Christian commenting that, "she was top 10 in the world, for sure."
Sophie continued to compete in the Karting World Championship and in 1994, she claimed 17th place. However, the pinnacle of Sophie's racing career came the following year, when she joined the hall of fame of the prestigious Andrea Margutti Trophy, by claiming the win, beating other talented drivers, such as Jarno Trulli and the late Allan Simonsen.
Although Sophie had a burning ambition to reach Formula 1, she retired in 1996, and married Jos Verstappen. She supported Jos in his budding racing career while raising their two children, Max who was born in 1997 and sister, Victoria, who followed in 1999.
Jos the Boss
Born Johannes Franciscus Verstappen in 1972, he was later nicknamed, Jos the Boss, by his legion of Dutch fans. Jos was kart racing by the time he was 8 years old going on to compete in national race events and become Dutch junior champion in 1984, when he was just 12.
Jos graduated to single-seat car racing 7 years later in 1991, driving for Formula Opel Lotus and claimed the European Formula Opel Lotus Benelux and Formula Opel Lotus Nations Cup titles just one year later.
His on-track performances attracted the attention of other teams and he was invited to join Van Amersfoort Racing, to race in Formula Three. Jos did well and went on to win the German Formula Three title and the Masters German Formula Three Championship in 1993, the first Dutch driver to win this title.
The heady heights of Formula 1 beckoned and Jos secured tests with both Arrows and McLaren, before signing for Benetton and taking part in the 1994 season. He made an impressive start to his Formula 1 career by achieving two podium finishes in this first year however during the German Grand Prix, when Jos arrived into the pits for a stop, his car was engulfed in flames when fuel sprayed on the car and ignited, as crew tried to attach the refuelling rig. Luckily, and thanks to quickly responding marshals, Jos and the crew suffered from only minor burns. These days, refueling does not take place during Formula 1 races.
After driving for Benetton, Jos drove for Simtek, Arrows, Tyrrell, Stewart before returning to Arrows and then finishing his Formula 1 career with Italian team, Minardi in 2003.
When Jos retired from Formula 1 racing, he raced and won in A1GP with A1 Team Netherlands, impressing with his overtaking ability. Jos was also Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 winner in 2008.
It has been reported that Jos will race in the Hankook 2022 24H Dubai in January. His team-mate will be Thierry Vermeulen, who coincidentally, is the son of Raymond Vermeulen, who manages the Formula 1 career of Jos' and Sophie's son, Max. The pair is reportedly driving the all new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Youngest Ever Formula 1 Race Winner
Arguably the most exciting talent to be seen on the Formula 1 scene since Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen was born in 1997 to racing parents. It had to be his destiny to race. Although of Belgian nationality, Max drives under the Dutch flag. Let's discover how it all unfolded for Max.
Max began his motorsport career in karting when he was just 4 years old, racing in the Mini Junior Championship in Belgium. Five years later, in 2006, he stepped up to the Rotax Max Minimax series, where he won the Belgian championship. A year later, Max went on to win the Dutch Minimax Championship. He then won the Dutch and Belgian Minimax Championship and the Belgian Cadet Championship racing a CRG kart.
In 2009, Max signed with the Pex Racing Team, which was a CRG customer team. With Pex, he won two championships, namely the Flemish Minimax Championship and the Belgian KF5 Championship.
International karting beckoned and in 2010, Max signed with CRG, and raced with the factory team at World and European Championships. Competing in the KF3 World Cup Championship, Max finished in 2nd place, beaten by Alex Albon, who would later become his team-mate at Red Bull Racing Honda. Max stepped up his game and went on to beat Alex at the WSK Euro Series, and also winning the WSK World Series.
During the next few years, Max's racing got better and better. He won the WSK Euro Series again in 2011, in a CRG kart powered by Parilla. Parilla is owned by Italian American Motor Engineering (IAME) a company founded in 1968 and based in Bergamo, Italy. His on-track performance was so impressive that Max was selected by Intrepid to join their driver program. This saw him winning the WSK Master Series and the South Garda Winter Cup race in the KF2 class, and also competing in the KZ2 class.
Max left Intrepid the following year in 2012 and after a brief time with Zanardi karts, he returned to CRG factory team, competing in the SKUSA Super Nationals in KZ2, finishing 21st. The following year, Max won both the European KF and KZ Championships. That same year, he also won the 2013 World KZ Championship in KZ1, which is the highest category in kart racing. At just 15 years of age, this was a sign of what was to come.
Living Life To The Max
In October 2013, Max tested a Barazi-Epsilon Formula Renault car at Pembrey. This would be his first drive in a single-seater racing car and the car was provided to him by Manor MP Motorsport, a Dutch team. He had other tests that year with Formula Renault teams and he tested a Dallara Formula 3 car run by Motopark Academy later in December. Another test for Formula Renault that month at the Circuito de Jerez saw Max go quicker than regular racers and again at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo he set a faster time than drivers with more experience.
Max took part in the Florida Winter Series in 2014 winning his first race on the second race weekend at Palm Beach International Raceway, having started on pole. Later that month, he won his second race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he beat future Williams F1 driver, Nicholas Latifi by a tiny margin.
Like his father, Max drove for Van Amersfoort Racing, competing in the 2014 FIA European Formula 3 Championship. He won 10 races, coming in 3rd place at the end of the season.
Breaking Records!
In August that year, Red Bull signed Max to join their illustrious Red Bull Junior Team, which was a prudent move by the team as he was also offered and subsequently considered a place on Mercedes' Driver Development Programme.
When he took part in the first Free Practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014, Max became the youngest driver to take part in a race weekend. This participation was to prepare him for a full-time drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso, (now known as Scuderia Alpha Tauri) the following year. Toro Rosso were the little sister team to Red Bull Racing.
In his first race for Toro Rosso, at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, Max became the youngest driver to drive in a World Championship race. Aged 17 years and 166 days, he broke the existing record, held by Jaime Alguersuari by almost 2 years!
Scoring his first Formula 1 points at 17 years old and 180 days, made Max the youngest driver to score World Championship points
Max continued to score points on a regular basis and at the end of the 2015 season had picked up three awards at the prestigious FIA Prize Giving event: Rookie of the Year, Personality of the Year and Action of the Year.
In 2016 Max raced with Toro Rosso until sister team, Red Bull Racing, decided to swap him with one of their drivers, Daniil Kvyat, part way through the season.
Max joined Red Bull Racing for the Spanish Grand Prix and put in a stunning performance to qualify 4th for the race. In the race, Max took the lead after both Mercedes crashed out on the opening lap and held onto the lead to win the race, making him the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix aged 18 years and 228 days!
Over the years, Max has earned a legion of fans, dubbed the Orange Army, who support him all around the world, bringing a great sea of orange to the packed stadiums around the circuits.
Max has remained with Red Bull Racing and is currently leading the 2021 Drivers' World Championship.