Jos Verstappen denies he ‘abused’ son Max Verstappen by leaving him alone at petrol station when he was 14
Former F1 racer Veꦕrstappen left his then 14-year-old son at a petrol station in the south of Italy after the youngster had crashed out of a major karting championship race in 2012.
The 51-year-old, who first told the story of the controversial incident years ago, has dismissed accusations of “abuse” in a new Viaplay documentary ‘Anatomy of a Champion’.
“People say how a bad father I was to him to abuse you🅘r child,” he said. “I never abused him.”
“I was hard on him, that mistake, and that was also my plan on that to learn. To think. A lot of people have no idea w💝hat you have to do t🦹o arrive at the top of a sport.”
in an interview published last year that his mother, Sophie Kumpen, collected him from the petrol station.Explaining the incident in the ne꧃w documentary, the two-time F1 world champion said: “I stayed in the lead at the start but then ꦿI got passed.
“I w♊as so upset that I got overtaken that in that same lap I tried to pass the guy back in a place which is just totally unnecess🥀ary.
“My dad was just so🌞 upset with me doing t𝄹hat stupid move. I basically threw everything away.
“Of course, I w☂as very sad and upset with myself making that mistake. I then started to try to talk to him afterwards in the van, tryi🐬ng to travel home for 17 hours.
“He didn’t want to t𝐆alk to me. And at one point, he was just so fed up with it. He said ‘get out’. He stopped at the fuel station, he was like ‘you get out’. And then he drove off.”
Verstappen’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, admitted he even questioned the treatm🎐ent of Max.
“Sometimes I said ‘Jos, you’re from a different planet’,” Ver🦩meulen explained in the documentary. “He [Jos] said, ‘I know. But we have to do iꩵt like this to be successful. End of story'."
L𓄧ewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter🙈 in the sport.
