"I smacked him across the helmet": When Jos Verstappen recalled giving Max Verstappen a stern dressing down during a competition

Max Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, once shared a story of how he scolded the Dutch driver during a poor performance in his karting days. He recalled this incident in an interview in 2020.

Ever since Max started racing, he has shown tremendous promise. Even in his karting days, he won most of the championships he participated in, from Mini Juniors, Rotax, and WSK to CIK FIA karting world championships. Till 2013, he was still driving go-karts. In every step of Max's professional career, Jos Verstappen has always been there by his side, helping in building the kart itself and guiding his son in racecraft.

Speaking on CarNext's interview with David Coulthard, both Jos and Max Verstappen recalled a karting world championship incident where the latter was driving poorly. Jos Verstappen said that when he saw his son's performance, he quickly called him into the pits, slapped him hard on his helmet, and scolded him. He urged his son to perform better since it was a world championship and hoped that they could win it.

"I called him in. I was always on the track. So he came back, I really smashed him on his helmet. Bang! And he was like...So I said, 'What are you doing? We are here, its world championship and I think we can win it," Jos Verstappen shared at 42:48.

Jos further recalled that after his stern reprimand, Max performed brilliantly and topped most of the sessions, including the final race.

"[After that], qualifying first, he won all the heats, pre-final, and final," he added at 43:15.

After his karting career, Max Verstappen entered the FIA F3 championship in 2014, where he finished third in the championship. He also drove in Macau GP and won the Zandvoort Masters competition.

Since he was already under the Red Bull umbrella at that moment, he was quickly promoted to F1 with Toro Rosso in 2015.

---

When Max Verstappen explained how he kept pressure at bay

After speaking about how Jos Verstappen smacked Max Verstappen's helmet during a karting world championship, the Red Bull driver explained how he used to keep his cool by being too relaxed about the situation. The Dutch driver explained that though it was his way of laying off some pressure, his father used to scold him to get him back in the zone.

Back in 2020, when this interview took place, Max Verstappen admitted that he still used this tactic to reduce the pressure on him.

"I think back then I needed that wake-up call sometimes, because my dad sometimes thought I was all like...too relaxed, you know, too easy going, but that was my way of not having pressure. I'm still like that," Verstappen said at 43:55.

When the interview took place, Max Verstappen did not have a single world championship under his belt. This was before the infamous 2021 F1 season, where he had a heated title battle with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and won his maiden world championship.