Verstappen is the first Dutchman on the cover of Time since 1966

Formula 1 drivers don’t often get the honor of being on the cover of Time, but the editors of the American magazine rightly thought Max Verstappen’s performance was excellent and the portrait of the three-time world champion appears on the title page of the latest issue of this authoritative publication.

He looks at readers with a characteristic squint, and across the cover is an announcement of an interview with a Red Bull Racing driver, which begins with the word ‘Unstoppable’, typed very large. That. “unstoppable”, “the one who is unstoppable”, and the subtitle can be translated as: “What fuels Max Verstappen’s desire for success in Formula 1.”

It turns out that he became the first representative of the Netherlands since 1966, whose individual portrait was placed on the cover of Time. 57 years ago, astrophysicist Marten Schmidt earned this by measuring the distances to astronomical objects called quasars. In barely a hundred years of the magazine’s existence, only 8 Dutch people have been on the cover, but among them there is only one athlete, and that is Max.

He is only the fourth driver in the entire history of Formula 1 to receive this honor: before him there were Jim Clark, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton in different years.

Verstappen gave an interview for Time in Austin, during the American Grand Prix, but a few points from there are worth highlighting. For example, he immediately chose to categorically distance himself from the seven-time world champion’s ‘star way’ by saying: ‘I don’t feel like dealing with movie stars.’

And this is what he said about his childhood, which took place in a very harsh atmosphere: “In my youth I saw other children playing without thinking about the future. But my father (Jos Verstappen, former Formula 1 driver) had a plan and I had to implement it.”

When Max was asked if he had difficulties in his relationship with his father, he admitted: “My father thought I was a bit lazy sometimes. Of course we have had discussions about these topics.”

Verstappen Sr. took his son’s failures during the karting period hard and was sometimes unable to control his emotions, but he did not resort to corporal punishment. However, I once hit my son on the helmet – it was before the race in Britain.

Yos told Time in an interview: “He needed it at that moment. And he won.”

Now with the passage of time we can say that the specific approach to education has brought results: now Max is 26 years old, he is already a three-time world champion, he has 52 Grand Prix victories, 31 pole positions, and he has already many statistical data registered in his name.

One of these is the number of wins per season, because Verstappen has already won seventeen races, but does not believe that his dominance deprives Formula 1 of an element of unpredictability: “The NBA has handled the period of dominance of the Chicago Bulls club well.” Time will pass and people will say, “That was great!” If you are a true fan of our sport, you must realize that there is a team in it that has been able to achieve such success.”