Max Verstappen has arguably been the best driver this season. Racing for him at the moment is very easy. The Italian GP triumph in Monza was Verstappen’s 11th win of the season. However, the Dutch prodigy revealed that it was not always so easy for him.

In an old interview, Max Verstappen revealed how his father, Jos Verstappen treated him with ‘tough love’ which has helped him to reach the pinnacle of motorsports. Max explains how Jos didn’t expect him to win every race. However, Sr. Verstappen wouldn’t tolerate his son not giving his everything in a race.

Max said, “It wasn’t that my father always wanted me to win, A second place was also okay for him if I got the maximum out of it. But as soon as he saw that I wasn’t giving 100 percent, he got really pi***d off. He gave an example of an incident where the former Minardi driver hit Max on his helmet. An instance that still inspires him to this day.

“Once I didn’t feel like it. My father noticed this and hit me on the helmet with full force. Everyone in the paddock noticed that. He just said: ‘If you keep driving like this, we’ll pack up and go home.””

The Red Bull driver further joked, “Sometimes he still asks me today just for fun if he should hit my helmet again so that I can go faster.”

READ MORE: Max Verstappen’s “Cannibal” Approach Reminiscent of 7x World Champion Michael Schumacher

The Dutchman is on course to win his second successive F1 Championship. He currently leads Charles Leclerc by a huge gap of 116 points.

Max Verstappen remembers the time when his father disregarded his F1 career

Max Verstappen is one of the youngest drivers to become a world champion. But he remembers the time when his father told him that he’d be a truck or a bus driver. The Dutch Lion has given multiple statements on his dad’s ruthlessness as a father.

Max said, “My dad never said I was gonna be a champion, He was always the opposite, he’d tell me I was gonna be a truck driver or like a bus driver.”

However, Verstappen agrees that his father only wanted the best for him and prepared him for the future. Max added, “He was always, in a good way I think, making me realize that what I was doing at the time was not enough.”

The Dutchman has been vocal about his father’s ‘tough love’ incidents. However, without his father’s support, Max Verstappen might not have excelled as much as he has in F1. 

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Max Verstappen won the first of his many titles last year after a scintillating final lap over-take on Lewis Hamilton in the Abu Dhabi GP. Moreover, he is in pole position to win his second World Title after winning the Italian GP. Can anyone stop ‘Mad Max’ this season?