Max prepares for his autosport debut after a historic year in karts
Published on 25 November 2013 by Johan Peeters
On Saturday, Max Verstappen started from pole position during the final of the world championship KF, for karts with automatic transmission. During the event, held in Sakhir (Bahrain), Max secured third place in the championship.
This meant his unbeaten string of victories came to an end as earlier this year, the son of former Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen, took the world title in manual transmission karts (KZ category) and became European champion in both the KZ and KF categories.
In his relentless hunt for titles, Max took on the best of the best in world karting, consistently beating world class drivers. Several of them had more years experience than Verstappen junior old is. In fact, Max wrote karting history as he took the two most important European championships and a world title. In almost 60 years of karting, not a single driver has demonstrated such a dominant performance, without doubt an extraordinary and unique achievement.
Max Verstappen: Double European champion and world champion karting 2013!
As the tuner of the KZ engines, Jos played his part in the success story
Max Verstappen's international karting results in 2013:
• Champion CIK-FIA World Championship KZ • Third CIK-FIA World Championship KF • Champion CIK-FIA European Championship KZ • Champion CIK-FIA European Championship KF • Champion WSK Euro Series KZ1 • Champion WSK Master Series KZ2 • Winner Winter Cup KF2
"I would like to thank everyone who helped and supported me throughout this season. It was the best season ever and we wrote karting history by winning two European and one world title in a single season across two different categories", says Max looking back on his extraordinary year. "We are now looking forward to new challenges, but I will always remain thankful to CRG karts, GFR, TM motors and of course my father as they did so much for me as we shared great success."
Maximum track time is vital to gain experience in Formula Renault 2.0
Once again Max proved his talent by being fastest during torrential rainfall at Spa-Francorchamps
From now on, the young Dutchman's focus lies entirely on his autosport debut. In the last months, he has been preparing by taking to the track in a proper racing car used for several European championships, as he tested seven times in a Formula Renault 2.0. The car is a single seater open wheel racer with front and rear wing. During pretty much all the tests, which took place at six different tracks and with five different teams, Max was the man to beat. He topped the leader boards, despite lacking the experience in autosport, and was faster than several official Formula Renault 2.0 track records.
Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that Max caught the attention of the professionals present at the tests, nor that the talented youngster is considered in a league of his own by many top guns in motorsport. Several Formula 1 teams have inquired to add the Dutchman to their talent program.
On his journey to F1, Max' first step will be to participate in the highly regarded Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, a series that is considered a step up to an international single seater career. As always, Max is ambitious and refuses to treat 2014 as year of transition: "My goal is to win as many races as possible, otherwise I might as well stay at home."
His will to succeed is paralleled by his intense preparation reflected in the several successful FR2.0 test sessions. However, at the moment it is unclear for what team Max will drive during his first autosport season. Nonetheless, Max will hit the ground running, as experts already rate him as one of the favourites. We are therefore witnessing the rise of a phenomenon about to embark on a career in autosport.
