Former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko only needed ‘twenty minutes’ to bring Max Verstappen to Red Bull. That is what father Jos Verstappen says about the start of his son’s Formula 1 career. The current rally driver was then, together with manager Raymond Vermeulen, in talks with both Red Bull and Mercedes about Verstappen junior’s future in motorsport. “Marko’s opening line was: ‘I want Max to drive for us in F1 next year’,” Verstappen still remembers well.
While Max Verstappen was still racing in the European Formula 3 Championship, his father Jos Verstappen and manager Raymond Vermeulen were already in talks with Red Bull and Mercedes about the driver’s future in motorsport. Jos Verstappen looks back on that time in an interview with AutoHebdo.
“We already had the same team around us then – manager Raymond Vermeulen, who is a good friend of mine,” he said. “It was him, Max, and me, and that is still the case today. So we were very well prepared. Toto Wolff and Helmut Marko were both in talks with us. They insisted on signing Max. And we did our job: finding the best environment for Max.”
Twenty minutes
In the end, it came down to a twenty-minute conversation that, according to the current rally driver, was a ‘typical’ Marko conversation. “I remember it well,” said Verstappen senior. “I was in Hockenheim, and it was a typical conversation with Helmut. He came to our table and said: ‘I only have twenty minutes.’ I told him that was more than enough time to talk.”
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“His opening line was: ‘I want Max to drive for us in F1 next year’,” Verstappen still remembers well. “I was very surprised that he said that, so I replied: ‘Okay, Helmut, let’s do it, but for two years, not just one’. Because Max was still so young, I thought he needed a first year to settle in, and then in the second year he could show how good he was. But he adapted so well. He had such a great first year in 2015 that they promoted him to Red Bull already in the second year. That was a good thing.”
And so it was done. At 17 years old, Max Verstappen made his debut as the youngest Formula 1 driver ever during the 2015 Australian GP. Marko’s confidence in the young Verstappen paid off for Red Bull. Between 2021 and 2024, the Dutchman won four world titles in a row.
Read everything about the Dutch GP in Zandvoort here
