Jos Verstappen about coaching: “The way I managed Max doesn’t happen anymore”
Published on 03 March 2018 by Raymond Snip
During the Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona, Verstappen.nl conducted an exclusive interview with Jos Verstappen. In this second and final part, we discuss the coaching of Max and we look ahead to the future.
What qualities of yourself do you see in Max and in what area do you feel he is even better?
"I think Max is just a little bit better in everything. Max is much further along than I was at the same age. This of course also is the result of the coaching he received. I think Max has a more refined awareness. He is able to pace himself. At the moments that I should have stayed behind someone, I just went for it. Max does have that self-control. However, I also had his smarts. I don’t know if he is more talented than I was, I find that very difficult to judge, but he did have a much better training.”
“Of course, I was working with him intensively on a daily basis. I recognized every mistake and every good thing I noticed as well. It is not only the mistakes you learn from, but you also have to acknowledge the good things. Overtaking is not always necessarily good. If you overtake someone where you lose a lot of time, it's just a crappy action. I have been working on that with him since the age of five. Every day we went driving he learned something. He attended every interview I did. Actually, everything that I was doing in relation to motorsport, he was there with me. As a little boy he received all this information. He did not always say something, but he listened. He memorized it and thought about it in his own way. I think that has influenced him tremendously.”
“Max is consciously and unconsciously just very well prepared. That's how I look at it. Of course, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing is reaping the benefits of this. This combination, with me first and now Red Bull Racing, has just been perfect."
You try to let go of Max more and more. In what areas will you support Max this year?
"There will always be one of us with him. I think I will be present at most races. I talk to people, walk around the paddock and see things in the garage. I speak with Max and I discuss everything with him. What I see and how I see things. That will always be the case, not just this year, but also in five years from now. I think it’s good to have people around you who understand the game. Of course, he acquires more and more knowledge, but to always have someone with you who challenges you and at the same time you can consult or discuss this with, that is the perfect combination."
Where would Max’ career be if he had not signed with Red Bull?
"It is always difficult to imagine, but I don’t think he would have raced in Formula 1 in 2015, he might not have been with a top team at this moment. For us it worked out really well. He landed with a top team and he has already won races, so I think we made the right choice."
You are talent scout at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. What exactly do you pay attention to, to see which talent jumps out?
"I do not really have an official role, they asked me if I could take a look and I gave them two names who I thought were talented. By coincidence I went to watch a kart race in Italy two weeks ago. I keep an eye out and of course I have a lot of contacts in the karting world. I only have to call someone and I know exactly who to keep an eye on. You know, of course it's nice when you work for Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari, but I do not see anyone being managed the way I did with Max. Nobody really can, to be honest. You can let them race with some team, but that does not mean that they learn a lot. If you want to do it right, you have to work at it very intensively, they have to work on it day in and day out. If you work very intensively with these guys, the right type will stand out and you can coach them and mold them. You can make them the way you need them to be. It’s just not being done that way at the moment."
Will you compare them with Max as an example?
"Of course, they see Max coming out of karting, then Formula 3 and on to Formula 1. That's how they all want to do it now, but they should look back ten years, how it was done back then. They're not realistic about it. Everything I have done, what did happen and what did not happen. I believe that people are really mistaken about what is needed to accomplish all that."
How do you see your future with regard to motorsport and Max?
"For me, the most important thing is Max, we want to become world champion, we want to win races and conquer the world." Max has priority over anything. We do it all between the three of us, Raymond (Vermeulen), Max and I. We have to make sure he sits in a winning car, so we can achieve what we want to achieve, that's my goal. I believe we're halfway there. It's getting bigger and bigger. Max is really making an impact, we have no idea what's coming at us next but it’s looking good so far. We can’t wait for the future to happen!"
