Column: Jos Verstappen - Massa needs to stop moaning

Published on 05 June 2015 by Stefan Meens

Jos Verstappen is still the Netherlands most successful Formula 1 driver. This season he shares his opinions regarding the sport via a column in Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf. Below the latest edition.

"A lot has been said and written about Max' crash in Monaco, Regardless, I feel very positive about his whole weekend, in which he showed the best of himself in both the training session as well as the race with some extraordinary overtakes.

And then the crash happened. The most important thing is that Max is OK. Because it really was a big impact which could have ended a lot worse. Everything after the crash is therefore irrelevant. Especially Felipe Massa's criticism, who referred to Max' age in yesterday's FIA press conference.

That's typical of Massa. He always has something to moan about others. But I think he is afraid to lose his seat in F1. He is 34 years old and the end of his Formula 1 career is approaching. In that sense, age is a bigger issue for Massa than for Max.

Also, I think Massa judged the situation between Max and Romain Grosjean too quickly. It's hard to judge it if you don’t have access to the data. I know Max didn’t brake later than the laps prior to the incident so our opinion on the matter is clear.

I have to say that Max responded very calm and collective after the crash. As a driver you know it's part of the job and that there's a possibility it can happen. But his focus switched to Canada quickly. So I think I got more of a freight than Max because this is also the first time I'm witnessing this as a father. Only after I saw he moved his head and took out the steering wheel, was I able to breath a sigh of relief.

I experienced a pretty harry moment myself in Monaco. Max took me for a taxi ride on Friday for a Sport1 video feature. It wasn’t relaxing at all. Max had already done a couple of laps prior to me getting into the car. Every time he stopped at the pits, you could see flames coming from the brakes, that's how hot they were. So when I was sitting next to him and he we on the limit, I hoped that the brakes wouldn’t fail.

I mean, I've done hundreds of taxi rides in my career, but only now I understand how people must have felt. The next time, Max can sit next to me while I'm driving...

The actual video clip has been viewed over 1.2 million times online and Toro Rosso's video has had more than 650.000 hits. It proves that Max appeals to a big audience and he can take that as a massive compliment.

Jos Verstappen

Source: De Telegraaf/Telesport

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