Jos Verstappen has been praised for creating F1\u2019s \u2018biggest beast\u2019 in his son Max, a driver hailed also as a \u2018gentleman\u2019.<\/p>\n
Long-time Ferrari stalwart Gino Rosato, a close friend of the Verstappens and also godfather to 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen\u2019s son, has said Jos Verstappen\u2019s occasionally criticised parental methods resulted in creating F1\u2019s most formidable driver.<\/p>\n
Gino Rosato: Jos Verstappen made Max a gentleman and a great driver<\/p>\n
Since Max Verstappen\u2019s arrival in Formula 1, his father Jos has come in for occasional criticism for taking a heavy-handed approach to bringing his son up through the motorsport ladder.<\/p>\n
The most infamous story pertains to Verstappen, while still in karting, being briefly left behind at a petrol station after a mistake in a race cost him victory, a story that is often pointed at as being overly harsh in raising a child.<\/p>\n
Last year, Jos explained that the circumstances of the story had been a little different, revealing that he and Max simply had not spoken for a week following their arrival back at home.<\/p>\n
A documentary on the rise of Verstappen saw Jos address the criticisms, in which he said:\u00a0\u201cPeople say how bad a father I was to him, to abuse your child.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never abused him, I was teaching him. I was hard on him, and that was also the plan [for him], to learn, to think. A lot of people have no idea what you have to do to arrive to the top of a sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosato, a former veteran of Ferrari stemming back to the 1990s, knew Jos from the Dutch driver\u2019s time in Formula 1, including a stint as Michael Schumacher\u2019s team-mate at Benetton, and spoke about the relationship between Jos and Max when he appeared on the Pitstop podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They] were coming around [the paddock] when [Max] was young and all this\u2026 I think I remember them more than they remember me when they were young,\u201d Rosato recounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Jos is a pure, pure thug. Don\u2019t f**k around with Jos. He\u2019s a pure guy. He\u2019s an honest guy. He\u2019s old school, and what are you gonna tell him? \u2018You did bad\u2019?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou created the biggest beast on the face of Formula 1, or one of them, for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put s**t in the garden, the flowers grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he made a gentleman. He made a great driver. But with old work ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jos\u2019 decision to raise Max with a less delicate approach is one that has paid huge dividends for the Verstappens, with the 27-year-old now on four world championship titles and counting.<\/p>\n
Rosato said that Jos forcing his son out of his comfort zone is an approach that not many parents engage in nowadays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is what this world has lost a little now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when I see people being parents today, they\u2019re just babying all the time. And \u2018Oh, what does he need?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cJos doesn\u2019t come from that school. \u2018F**king figure it out. Let\u2019s go. You want to be the best? This is what it takes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
More on Max Verstappen in Formula 1<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The truth behind Jos Verstappen, Max Verstappen and the gas station<\/a><\/p>\n