Motorsport Family: A Look At The Verstappen Family Racing DNA
There are many stories of fathers, sons and daughters in motorsport, but Max Verstappen’s parents were ex-drivers.
Sophie Kumpen and Jos Verstappen
This article covers the Verstappen family with another section focusing on the motorsports family. There are many fathers/sons/daughters in motorsport, but the Verstappen family goes one step further. Max Verstappen’s mother and father are both former drivers. Sophie had a successful racing career before she met Kumpen and Jos Verstappen and before Max arrived. Let’s take a look at how their motorsport careers have shaped up.
When you think of Max Verstappen, you immediately associate him with his famous racing driver father Jos. But don’t forget Max’s mother, Sophie Kumpen. He was a successful racing driver before putting his career on hold to support Jose and raise his young family.
Sophie was born in Belgium and started her karting career at the age of 10. He performed well and entered the Formula A World Championship at the age of 16, finishing 9th overall in his first championship. The following year, Sophie took part in the World Karting Championship, finishing ahead of future Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, who drove for Minardi, Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault, Force India and Ferrari. It’s such a small world.
Christian and Max
Interestingly, Max’s current Formula 1 team, Red Bull Racing Honda team principal Christian Horner OBE, competed with Sophie in the 1989 World Karting Championship, with Christian commenting: “She was in the top 10 teams in the world.” , categorically.\”
Sophie went on to compete in the World Karting Championships, finishing 17th in 1994. But the highlight of Sophie’s racing career came the following year when she was inducted into the prestigious Andrea Margutti Trophy Hall of Fame, beating other talented drivers such as Jarno Trulli and the late Allan Simonsen. Sophie dreamed of entering Formula 1, but retired in 1996 and married Jos Verstappen. She supported Jos’s racing career while raising her two children, Max, born in 1997, and sister Victoria, born in 1999. Josh is the boss.
Down with Verstappen
Johannes Franciscus Verstappen, later nicknamed Jos de Baas by his Dutch fans, was born in 1972. Joos started karting at the age of eight and then competed nationally, becoming Dutch Junior Champion in 1984 at the age of 12. Jos graduated from single-seater motorsport seven years later in 1991 to drive in Formula Opel Lotus, winning the European Formula Opel Lotus Benelux and Formula Opel Lotus Nations Cup titles a year later.
His performance on the track attracted the attention of other teams and he was invited to join Van Amersfoort in Formula Three. Joos performed well and became German Formula 3 Champion in 1993, winning the German Formula 3 Championship in 1993, becoming the first Dutch driver to win the title.
The peak of Formula 1 arrived and Jos tested both Arrows and McLaren before signing and racing with Benetton for the 1994 season. He made an impressive start to his Formula 1 career, taking two podiums in his first year, but when he pitted for a pit stop during the German Grand Prix, Joss’ car burst into flames. It exploded and caught fire. , the crew attempted to secure the fueling platform. Fortunately, thanks to the sheriff’s quick response, Joss and his crew only suffered minor burns. There is currently no refueling during a Formula 1 race.
After driving for Benetton, Jos worked for Simtek, Arrows, Tyrrell and Stewart before returning to Arrows before ending his Formula 1 career with Italian team Minardi in 2003. After retiring from Formula 1, Jos raced with A1 Team Netherlands, winning the A1GP and impressing with his overtaking skills. Joe also won the 2008 LMP2 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is reported that Joss is scheduled to compete in the Korea 2022 24H held in Dubai in January. His team-mate will be Thierry Vermeulen, son of Raymond Vermeulen, who managed the F1 career of Jos and Sophie’s son Max. It is reported that the two plan to drive the new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.
Max Verstappen is probably the most exciting talent in Formula 1 since Lewis Hamilton. He was born to Gyeongju parents in 1997. It was his destiny to run the race. Although his nationality is Belgian, Max flies the Dutch flag. Let’s find out how everything went for Max.
Max started his motorsport career in karting at the age of four, competing in the junior championships in Belgium. Five years later, in 2006, he moved to the Rotax Max Minimax series and won the Belgian Championship. A year later, Max Holland won the Minimax Championship. He later won the Dutch and Belgian Minimax Championships and the Belgian Cadet Championship with CRG karts.
In 2009, Max signed with CRG’s customer team, Pex Racing Team. With Pex he won two championships: the Flemish Minimax Championship and the Belgian KF5 Championship.
International karting beckoned and in 2010 Max signed with CRG and competed with the factory team in the World and European Championships. While competing in the KF3 World Championship, Max finished second, losing to Alex Albon, who later became his teammate at Red Bull Racing Honda. Max stepped up his game and defeated Alex in the WSK Euro Series and also won the WSK World Series. Over the next few years, Max’s racing continued to improve. In 2011, he won the WSK Euro Series again in a CRG kart driven by Parilla. Parilla is owned by Italian American Motor Engineering (IAME), founded in 1968 and headquartered in Bergamo, Italy. His performance on the track was so impressive that Max was selected to join the Intrepid driver program. This led him to win the WSK Masters Series and the South Garda Winter Cup in the KF2 class, as well as competing in the KZ2 class.
Max left Intrepid the following year in 2012 and had a short stint with Zanardi karts before returning to the CRG factory team and competing in the SKUSA Super Nationals in KZ2, finishing 21st. The following year, Max won the European KF and KZ Championships. In the same year, he also won the 2013 KZ World Championship in KZ1, the highest category of kart racing. At just 15 years old, this was a sign of things to come.
In October 2013, Max tested the Barazi-Epsilon Formula Renault car in Pembrokeshire. It was his first time driving a single-seater racing car and the car was presented to him by Dutch team Manor MP Motorsport. That year he passed further tests with the Formula Renault team, and at the end of December he tested the Dallara Formula 3 car for the Motopark Academy. In another Formula Renault test at Circuito-de-Jérèse that month, Max ran faster than the average driver and set a faster time than seasoned circuit driver Ricardo Tormo.
Max competed in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, winning his first race after starting on the pole during the second race weekend at Palm Beach International Speedway. Later that month, he won his second race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, narrowly beating future Williams F1 driver Nicolas Latifi.
Like his father, Max raced with Van Amersfoort in the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He finished the season in 3rd place with 10 wins.
In August, Red Bull signed Max to join the famous Red Bull Junior team. This was a smart move by the team. Max was offered a position and was later considered for the Mercedes driver development program. When he took part in the first free practice session of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Max became the youngest driver to take part in a race weekend. This involvement was intended to prepare him to drive full-time for Scuderia Toro Rosso (now known as Scuderia Alpha Tauri) the following year. Toro Rosso was the sister team of Red Bull Racing.
In Toro Rosso’s first race at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, Max became the youngest driver to compete in the World Championship. At 17 years and 166 days, he broke Jaime Alguersuari’s record by almost two years!
Scoring his first points in Formula 1 at the age of 17 years and 180 days, Max became the youngest driver to score points in the World Championship.
Max continued to score points regularly and at the end of the 2015 season, he won three awards at the prestigious FIA awards ceremony – Rookie of the Year, Man of the Year and Action of the Year.
In 2016, Max raced for Toro Rosso and their sister team, Red Bull Racing, decided to replace him with one of their drivers, Daniil Kvyat, mid-season. Max joined Red Bull Racing for the Spanish Grand Prix and performed brilliantly, finishing 4th in the race.
