- Just eight months after beginning his maiden automobile race, Max Verstappen made waves by
- earninga spot in Formula 1.Max Verstappen, the son of kart driver Sophie-Marie Kumpen and Jos Verstappen, the first Dutchman to finish on an F1 podium, began his single-seater racing career in 2013 after a very successful karting campaign.
After the older Verstappen withdrew from Formula One in 2003, Max, then seven years old, won his first karting races in Belgium two years later. After going up to the “mini max” division after two years in the Belgian “mini” championship, this started an incredible three-season unbeaten run.
After Verstappen, now eleven, started moving up the karting ladder in 2008, further titles followed, including the Belgian Cadet Championship. He proved that a step up to the international scene wouldn’t stop him from winning the WSK World Series KF3 and the Euro title, which he went on to win the following year.
He continued to race in a number of karting divisions in 2012, with varying degrees of success. However, he
Verstappen also won the KF and KZ European titles, the KF2 Winter Cup, and the WSK Euro Series KZ1 and KSK Master Series KZ2 crowns. Verstappen, who turned 16 in September, was ready to advance to slicks-and-wings racing after putting together one of his best karting campaigns in recent memory…….
