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Obviously, he was special

13. Dec 2021 
by Ziv Knoll
8793 views

Beginning of February 2015, I was attending the Formula One pre-season tests in Barcelona, for the website F1i, in which I was a partner. I was very interested in this young (17 years old) phenomenon, Max Verstappen, coming straight from the Formula 3 into the big arena of the Formula One, driving his first kilometres in a Formula One car, without even having his driving licence!

I went to the Toro Rosso pits and asked Jos Verstappen, former F1 driver and father of Max, if I could interview his son. He didn’t hesitate one second, said yes, and gave me an appointment for later in the afternoon.

Max was perfectly on time, behaved like a pro, I remind you he was 17 only, and answered all my questions seriously, smartly and gently. He didn’t take his eyes off me. What struck me that day, was the maturity of the kid, who spoke and thought like an adult. Obviously he was special. Since that day, we kept in touch and I regularly spoke to him, to his father and to his manager Raymond Vermeulen, on and off the record.

Back then, I had the very strong intuition, that Max Verstappen would become, sooner rather than later, a World Champion. Now six years later, the boy interviewed on a cold test day in Barcelona, is the 2021 Formula One World Champion!

Source: Ziv Knoll

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