That meant that when they decided to swap the tyres on the rims for the final, it was always going to take a few laps for the grip to return.

Then the hot Neapolitan sun had caused his rear tyres to overheat and blister as he made up those ten places to take pole position for the final. For starters, a burnt-out clutch in one of the early heats had left him tenth in the pre-final.

But then there was the mistake.īut, you see, it wasn't all Max's fault. His father, Jos, a former F1 driver and now Max's full-time kart mechanic, always made sure his son had the best equipment when he moved up a class, and once again Max immediately looked very competitive against older, more experienced competition. The event was the KZ2 World Championship final at Sarno - a track near Naples, under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius - and Max was making the step up to shifter karts (go-karts with a gearbox) for the first time. The weekend had looked so promising, too. One of those weird moments in motorsport where a number of seemingly unrelated factors lead to a split-second decision that ultimately ruins a whole weekend's work. There was only one option left: call Mum.Īs he sat waiting for his mum, who was in a separate car a little further back on the same road, Max was still working the mistake over in his head. And he'd certainly never been left alone at a gas station in the south of Italy.

In all of his 14 years and 11 months on this earth, he'd never seen his dad as angry as he was at the go-kart track a couple of hours earlier. The making of F1 world champion Max VerstappenĪs he watched his dad's van pull back on to the Autostrada without him, Max Verstappen was struggling to digest what had happened. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser

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