Max Verstappen’s trajectory in Formula 1 has not always been marked by current success. A curious story from the beginning of his career shows that the Dutch driver faced financial limitations even for accommodation during a GP weekend.
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The account was given by his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, recalling the phase when the Dutchman participated in some free practices in 2014 for the Toro Rosso team (now Racing Bulls), before his debut as a full-time driver the following year. On that occasion, the reduced budget forced the group to improvise even on accommodation in São Paulo.
According to Vermeulen, there were not enough resources to afford comfortable accommodation for the GP weekend: “We had no budget at all, so we took a hotel room for three people at the Hotel Transamérica in São Paulo. They arranged a crib for Max, a kind of cot,” he said.
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At the time, only seventeen years old, Verstappen shared the room with his father, Jos Verstappen, and his manager. While the two older men went out for an informal meeting, the young driver decided to sleep early to prepare for the practice the next day.
However, their return to the room ended up creating an unusual situation: “We came back a little later and perhaps made too much noise. Max woke up and said: ‘Dad, can you make a little less noise? I have to drive tomorrow.’ And Jos replied something like: ‘Don’t complain, everything will be fine.’ This shows how we did everything together, depended on each other, and had a lot of fun,” Vermeulen added, laughing.
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