Max Verstappen crowned himself world champion in Formula 1. His parents were also racing drivers.
At Japan’s Grand Prix, Max Verstappen once again showed his entire talent: In qualifying last Saturday, he not only put his raid Red Bull in the pole position, but even a new round record on the route in Suzuka. Just a day later, the next demonstration of power: Over the entire racing distance, the 27-year-old held the at least theoretically faster McLaren by Lando Norris and Oscar Piatri at a distance and celebrated his first racing victory in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
With his strong performance, Verstappen emphasized that despite the unusually weak Red Bull, he wants to fight for the World Cup title again this season. With four titles in the past four years, he is already one of the best drivers in Formula 1 history.
The talent was put in the cradle, because both his father Jos and his mother Sophie Kumpen, who separated in 2008, were active in racing. Kumpen celebrated her success, especially in karting, competed against later Formula 1 drivers such as Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, Nick Heidfeld, world champion Jenson Button or today’s Red Bull team boss and thus boss her son Christian Horner.
The latter often remembered the tremendous talent of the Verstappen mother. “In 1989 I started in the junior class and drove against Max’s mother, Sophie Kumpen,” he said in a podcast. “She was fantastic, among the top ten in the world,” said his great praise. And when asked whether he was hit by Kumpen himself, he replied: “And OB.”
Former Red Bull driver David Coulthard and the recently deceased former team owner Eddie Jordan also praised the talent of Kumpens. For example, they said that they had certainly trusted them to jump into Formula 1.
However, speculation remains whether Kumpen would actually have made it into the premier class. Because after she married Jos Verstappen and was born in 1997 son Max, Kumpen ended her racing career. A short comeback in 2013 ended in a serious change in which she broke a vertebrae.
Different father Jos: He drove with interruptions between 1994 and 2003 in Formula 1. In addition to later stations at Simtek, Arrows, Tyrrell, Stewart and Minardi, Verstappen played his debut season 1994 in Benetton – and was therefore teammate of Michael Schumacher, who won the first of his seven world championship this year. The families of the two drivers quickly became friends and even went on vacation together.
Verstappen replaced JJ Lehto and completed 10 of the 16 season races, making it onto the podium twice. Most remembered, however, an extremely dangerous moment at the Grand Prix of Germany. At a pit stop Verstappen, one of the mechanics did not really pose the tank tube, petrol escaped and ignited in a large fireball. Thanks to the fire -proof clothing, Verstappen and the mechanics survived the incident largely unharmed. The former racing driver only suffered slight burns.
After his career, Jos then fully concentrated to promote his son – and above all to challenge. Because both Jos and Max have reported several times about the father’s questionable educational methods.
For example, Jos had his son rounded around rounds in his kart in ice -cold rain until his hands were frozen. Attention also attracted a story that Jos wanted to punish little Max after a kart race, in which he was eliminated instead of winning from his own fault, with a week of silence. However, when Max did not calm down in the car on the way back, Jos quickly stopped him at a petrol station. Mother Sophie Kumpen later collected him there.
“I think Max needed this learning experience because he was someone who was pretty relaxed with everything,” said Jos Verstappen about his tough educational methods. “The fact that I was always a little hard to him is now paying off, I think,” said Verstappen Senior. “Even with the way he deals with pressure. He always had pressure, from me, so to speak. But when you see how he is dealing with it now, you can only be proud.”