Verstappen candid: "Nothing can be worse than what I experienced back then"

In conversation with Sky Sports, Verstappen is confronted with reports that say it will be 'game over' if he wins at Silverstone. However, the Red Bull Racing driver sees it differently. "It’s not over. It's still a very long season, we’re not even halfway," says Verstappen. "Of course so far we’ve been doing a great job, but I think Silverstone is one of these tracks where they’ve [Mercedes] always been really good at. But then again in France, we’ve struggled there in the past but we were very competitive there."

Verstappen happy with hard lessons afterwards

Then the conversation gets a bit more personal: the interviewer asks if Jos Verstappen's strict mentoring helps him in these kinds of situations. "Nothing can be worse than what I’ve experienced back then", the 23-year old says, laughing. When asked if his father really left him alone on the track once, he answers: "It’s true, yeah. But I also made a big mistake at the time to lose out on that world championship. In a way, it was good for me because it made me a tougher person."

"Of course now we can laugh about it, but it wasn’t so funny at the time. I think the way my dad handled things at the time was tough, but now I’m actually very happy that he did. Because it really prepared me well for what’s happening right now," the Dutchman continued.