Just Like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen Once Opened Up About Traumatic “School” Struggles

Without a doubt, Max Verstappen is surely one of the top drivers Formula 1 has right now. With his sheer performance, the Dutchman not only picked up two back-to-back drivers championships but also took a staggering number of wins in the last two years. However, Verstappen’s best seasons might have come off late, but he started really early. He started F1 at an age when most of the boys were usually at school, which the Red Bull driver didn’t enjoy much.

Verstappen didn’t have a splendid memory that he could think of from his school days. Whatever he has, however, is not as painful as Lewis Hamilton‘s. Talking about this, the Dutch driver once shared that he found school not too exciting. When asked about it, Verstappen told Top Gear that it was “Boring.”

When enquired if he missed out on normal things in school, the Red Bull star further shared, “No. No. For me, what I loved was being on the track. Being at school meant being trapped. It’s a big risk to step out of education, of course, but luckily it worked out.”

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Verstappen, who is known for his absolute self-confidence, made his debut in F1 with Toro Rosso when he was just 17 years and 166 days old. At the age of 18, the Dutchman became a Grand Prix champion with Red Bull. In both cases, Max Verstappen was the youngest-ever driver to achieve these feats.

Max Verstappen revealed his plan to avoid school and go racing instead

Max Verstappen, who isn’t a big fan of going to school, often resorted to a particular way of missing school and then going to racing. The Dutchman would often pull out the same trick again and again so that he can do what he loves, karting.

Talking about this to Dutch Formula 1, Verstappen told F1i, “I’d ask to go to the toilet, and then I wouldn’t go back to class! Every Friday at a quarter past three, we were out of school and then we immediately went on the bus to Italy.”

“My father had already put the things on the bus, bring a pair of underpants and then go full throttle to Italy.” Jos Verstappen, the father of Max, was an instrumental figure in shaping the Dutch champion. Verstappen Sr. admitted that he allowed his son to skip school because of his talent in racing. Otherwise, he’d have “kicked” him back to the school.

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“If Max hadn’t had the talent, and if I hadn’t seen it, I would have kicked him all the way to school, so to speak. But I knew that something was going to happen in motorsport. That’s why I didn’t just tolerate it. I encouraged it!”

Luckily for Verstappen, his father has been an encouraging figure to him, otherwise who would’ve believed in the talent the young Dutchman had?