Max Verstappen may be riding the crest of the wave in Formula 1 at present but he is thinking of both the beginning and the end.
On the eve of the first race of the 2023 season in Bahrain, he is appreciating the “different treatment” his father, the ex-racing driver Jos, meted out to him in the early days to push him to the top of the sport where he now sits.
Ask up and down the F1 paddock and the consensus is that he will comfortably stay there with another runaway championship success. Currently his car looks to be half-a-second quicker a lap than that of his rivals.
But he is also looking to the future too. When the end will come, he has no idea but he has no plans to still be turning a wheel in anger at the age of 41 – as Fernando Alonso is – or even 37 – the age of his 2021 championship rival Lewis Hamilton.
It’s not that he doesn’t love F1 – in fact, he takes just two weeks off a year and, when not at an F1 circuit, much of the rest of the time is spent pursuing his other passion… sim racing. Even between testing and the race weekend, he has spent his time karting at the neighbouring circuit in Sakhir.
But sitting outside Red Bull’s hospitality suite in Bahrain, he says: “There’s more things to life than just Formula 1. I have a contract until 2028 and, after that, I will see. I already have a lot of plans for what I want to do.
“I know what I want to do and I think over time it will only become more and more clear. I don’t want to spend my best years in terms of physicality just in Formula 1. With the races becoming more and more, it’s way too much.”
The idea that Verstappen might walk away from the sport in six years’ time at the age of 31 currently seems far-fetched but he has already mapped out his wishlist for retirement. It primarily involves racing in other categories and spending more time with his family.
“I’m very fortunate to drive a Formula 1 car, I can do what I want mostly but at one point that doesn’t matter… it’s also about quality of life,” he said. “At one point, I’ll find it’s not worth it anymore.
“I still love what I’m doing but I don’t see myself until 40 years old. I’ll want to do less races, have more time at home and appreciate other things in life but still be competitive. I just want to live my life because this is a really consuming life in the end.”
The son of two drivers, the Dutchman was born to race. As a child, his father pushed him to ensure he did not endure an F1 career languishing for the minor points as he had done.
At times, that was tough. Reflecting on it ahead of his ninth season in the sport, Verstappen knows it was hard at points – fissures often breaking out in the father-son relationship – but is happy it was that way. For what it’s worth, he seems very level, and dismisses the suggestion that Jos was a pushy parent.
“I think every child is different in terms of how they are as a character,” he said. “I definitely needed a harder treatment, and kids will always come forward if they don’t like it anymore.
“My dad never pushed me into it but the way he was pushing me throughout my career, in the back of my mind sometimes it was just a bit difficult. ‘Why do I have to do that compared to other kids?’, because you see them doing other things. ‘Why can’t I do that?’
“The message was you can be like them but you will not be in F1. It’s a way of living you commit to and I’m really happy I did, I’m really thankful that he was like that to me. But we all have a different way to get to the top.”
There were times when he never thought he’d make it to the pinnacle of the sport. In his titanic duel with Hamilton, he had the same nagging sensation at every race.
“In that first year fighting for the title I was like, ‘will I ever have the chance again?’” he recalls. “The desire was ‘will this be my only shot?’ You just don’t know.”
There’s more things to life than just Formula 1. I have a contract until 2028 and, after that, I will see
In 2022, it was markedly easier as he won a record 15 races and wrapped up the title long before the final weekend. But he argues it was harder than it looked.
“It was a very different sensation,” he concludes of last season. “Other teams made a few mistakes and made it look like a massive gap. Apart from maybe two weekends, others were always quite close. I never felt I had a dominant car all season, and most of the time I wasn’t on pole. It looked like a dominant season but never felt like that.”
And what of the idea that he’s a shoo-in for the hat-trick? Having retired from the opening race in Bahrain a year ago, there are, as he puts it “never guarantees”. And yet he and everyone else on the grid knows he has the quickest car at his disposal.
