• Max Verstappen has been involved in motorsports from an early age
  • He started racing on the kart circuit when he was a little kid
  • He was the youngest rookie in Formula 1 history and the youngest rider to score points
  • Before becoming world champion, he finished the season twice as 3rd overall driver
  • You can find more of these stories on the Onet homepage

Sunday 12 December 2021 Max Vestabin He fulfilled his big dream and became the world champion for the first time in his career. He did it in amazing circumstances, early Lewis Hamilton On the last lap of the last race Formula 1 in season. Before the Abu Dhabi World Grand Prix, both drivers earned the same number of points.

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Dual nationalities – choose Holland

The Dutchman was born on September 30, 1997 in the town of Hasselt, which has a population of less than 80 thousand, in the northeastern part of Belgium. He has two nationalities. His mother is Belgian and his father is Dutch.

The newly baked world champion decided to ride on a Dutch license because he feels more Dutch. In addition, he spent more time with his father during karting competitions. In addition, during his adolescence he resided among the Dutch in the town of Maaseik, located near the Belgian-Dutch border.

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Verstappen continued the family tradition. His father, Jos Verstappen, also competed in Formula One, and from 1994 to 2003 he competed in 107 races, scoring 17 points, and making a podium finish twice. His mother, Sophie Compen, competed in karting, and his uncle, Anthony Compen, won championship titles in 2014 and 2016 in the NASCAR Wellin Euro Series.

The first steps of a new world champion

Verstappen took his first steps in karting when he was just 4.5 years old, and had to wait for his first success until 2005. He then finished second in the Mini Junior class at the championship held in the Belgian province of Limburg.

Two years later, he shone internationally, finishing second at the CIK-FIA World Cup in the KF3 category. He also took part in the WSK World Championship, winning the overall standings, repeating this feat in 2012. A year later he was again the best in the WSK World Championship, only in the KF2 category.

When Max Verstappen started representing the CRG Factory Team back in 2013, he won the European Champion titles in the KF and KZ classes. In the same year, at the age of 15, he became the world champion of karting in the KZ1 class. This is the highest class kart car, so it was the driver’s first big success.

The youngest rookie in the history of Formula 1

On August 12, 2014, information emerged that Verstappen became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team, and six days later became the driver of Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2015 season. Rockingham Motor Speedway for the Red Bull RB7.

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On October 3, 2014, he also became the youngest driver to ever compete in a Grand Prix weekend. Then he led practice on Friday before racing for the Japanese Grand Prix, aged 17 years 3 days old.

As a fully qualified Formula 1 driver, the Dutchman made his Australian Grand Prix debut in March 2015. Thus, at the age of 17 and 166 days, he became the youngest driver to participate in the highest racing series.

He was about to score in his first race, but his engine was malfunctioning. The driver was eliminated from the other competition. In the next race, which was held in Malaysia, Verstappen finished seventh. Here he was the youngest driver again (17 years 180 days).

He changed teams and won instantly

He waited until the following season for his first victory in the queen of motorsports. He did it in the first race after changing the team. During the 2016 season, he replaced Scuderia Toro Rosso with Red Bull Racing and climbed to the top of the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix in May 2016. Prior to that, he had never raced a second or third time.

In the 2017 season, he was in the top three four times. He was third and second each, winning twice (in Malaysia and Mexico). In turn, a year later, he finished the race eleven times on the podium, but won only twice (in Austria and Mexico). This put him fourth at the end of the season.

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World Champion – Up to Art three times

The 2019 season had eight podiums and three wins (in Austria, Germany and Brazil), which, along with a large number of fourth places, gave him third place in the drivers’ standings. This result was also repeated in 2020, when he won twice (in the UK and Abu Dhabi), finished second six times and third three times.

He fulfilled the dream of his life in 2021, after agitation until the last turn of the season. Before the last race (Abu Dhabi GP), Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had exactly the same number of points. Five laps before the end of the race, Nicholas Latifi’s car crashed and a safety car appeared on the track. Then the Dutchman decided to replace the tires because he wanted to try to attack the British driver.

The safety car left the track before the last lap and the Dutchman launched the attack, having previously followed the British international. This keeps Verstappen on new tires He beat Lewis Hamilton very quickly and didn’t give up that lead to the end.

Mercedes made two protests, but the FIA ​​rejected them and the Dutchman can safely enjoy the success of his life.