Jos Verstappen on Max Verstappen: “It didn’t come out of the blue”

According to the four-time Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen’s 72nd Grand Prix victory is “one of my sweetest; firstly, because we had to wait so long for it, and secondly, because this is the first victory with our own power unit”.

Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, no longer attends every World Championship race, but the 54-year-old was there in Malaysia. Speaking to Viaplay, the man who has competed in 107 Grand Prix races said: “It didn’t come out of the blue.”

“During the final safety car period, the field bunched up again. Max had previously had a lead of ten or eleven seconds, and he managed that gap confidently, so things were looking good. But because of the safety car, that lead suddenly vanished. Somehow, the team has finally rediscovered the car’s former pace. You can see it in Max’s steering movements too. Things are looking positive again.”

The turning point for victory: the right decision to start the race on intermediates, not slicks. Jos Verstappen points out: “They’d stopped showing the track on TV, so you didn’t know exactly how much it was drying out. The only thing you could see was the start/finish straight, and it was still damp there. During the formation lap, we then realised that many parts of the track were still very wet, so we knew we’d made the right choice.”

So, a first victory for Red Bull Powertrains/Ford. Verstappen senior adds: “People are quick to forget that RBPT and Ford are in their first year; they’re taking on Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda, who have years of Formula 1 experience. I think you’ve got to take your hat off to Red Bull Powertrains/Ford. Their hard work has paid off.”

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Jos Verstappen is confident that his son can build on this in the final third of the season. “It looks encouraging. Of course, the upcoming results will also depend on developments at the other teams, but I think that Red Bull Racing and Max will definitely continue to fight for podium places and, sometimes, for victories too. To be honest: I wouldn’t have expected that just a few months ago.”