How did Jos Verstappen make sure Max could learn from his mistakes?

Jos Verstappen was a gifted driver in his day, but he didn't get the most out of his Formula 1 career. As a young driver he made mistakes, both on and off the track, which ensured that he never reached his potential. The story is well known by now: Jos raised Max with the intention of not letting Max make the same mistakes.

Mistakes

In an interview with Jack van Gelder on Instagram Live, the father of Max Verstappen looks back on that eventful time: "The expectations were high, but I made a lot of mistakes. There's a lot involved of course. I just don't think I was prepared for what was in store for me. I have made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I have learned a lot from them. I have passed that on to Max."

Van Gelder asks Jos to elaborate on the mistakes he made: "How you deal with the press. But for me mainly with the team. Because I had little experience and because I had nobody I could talk to about the car. You really need a confidant who you can talk to and who helps you learn the important things. But I had to find out everything myself and I found out too late. Then I had already made the mistake and was still judged for it."

Lessons for Max

Verstappen senior has another anecdote of how one of his mistakes helped his son later on: "I don't like a soft brake pedal. By the time I figured out what I did want, a harder brake pedal, half the season was over and I had already made my mistakes." Max later had the same problem in one of his first tests. Jos asked him how the brake pedal was, to which the young Verstappen replied "soft". Jos decided to talk to the engineer and have it adjusted. "The next day he went a lot faster. And that was the third day Max was in a race car. With me it took two and a half years before I found out."