Max Verstappen’s sister ‘had the same talent’ and could have been female F1 star

Max Verstappen sent offer to quit Red Bull and join F1 rival keen to be his team-mate

Max Verstappen has revealed that his younger sister could have followed him into motor racing after showing lots of early promise behind the wheel of a kart. The Dutchman has emerged as the standout driver of his generation and is firmly on course to win his third Drivers’ Championship title in as many F1 seasons.

Verstappen hails from a family of racing drivers, with his father Jos having previously competed in F1 for the likes of Benetton, Tyrrell and Minardi. His sister Victoria, who is almost three years his junior, was also talented as a youngster but did not have the same appetite for racing as her older brother.

“I think she had a lot of potential,” explained Verstappen in an interview with RaceFans. “There were a few instances where my dad would spend two days preparing everything like he would do with me, making sure everything was perfect for her to drive. Then she would drive for like 20 laps, and then she’s like ‘That’s it for me for today’. And then my dad would get quite annoyed.

“I think my sister probably had the same amount of talent as I had when I was little, but she just didn’t want it enough. She liked it but not enough to, like, fight for it, be fit, be ready. That’s fine, as long as you realise that.

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“My dad was, anyway, mainly focused on me. But then if you really want it, if you really want to fight for it, even when let’s say your dad is not really focused on you, if you make him realise, make him see that ‘I want to do this as well’, I was 100 per cent sure that my dad would have gone all the way for her as well. But my dad didn’t feel it, she didn’t want it enough.”

Verstappen went on to open up on the sacrifices he was forced to make during his childhood in order to become an elite-level racing driver, with the 25-year-old having easily surpassed the achievements of his father since breaking into F1 eight years ago. He is currently on a record-breaking streak of 10 successive victories but had to work exceptionally hard in order to get to where he is.

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“People always ask me, like, ‘didn’t you miss going out with friends?’, because of course you couldn’t do it as frequently as other people,” he added. “But I’m like that’s fine, because most of my friends were anyway within the racing community.

“I knew what I was working for, so I was happily giving up that side of my life because I was anyway enjoying what I was doing. So for me, it was not very hard to give that up. Sometimes when I would be at home you would go out or just have a fun time with your friends, but then on the other I know that I only have one shot at this to try and get to Formula One and I will do everything I can.”

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