Max had just finished fifth at the Hungarian Grand Prix, meaning the party had been going for several hours which could explain it, but the police report records that Jos had pushed his father off his chair and he had fallen against the wall. Horner’s eyes were on stalks, as wide as if he himself were driving the car, scanning the countless screens with every possible piece of data for any signs of trouble or opportunities for advantage. And as sports journalist James Gray deftly shows, since his headline-grabbing debut victory at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, Max has continued to make an indelible impression on the sport, courting criticism and plaudits in equal measure. As well as being good team-mates, his dad and Michael Schumacher became great friends over the years. Expert assessments: insights from three-time World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart and leading journalists Peter Windsor and Will Buxton.

He has to give that back,’ Max pleaded on the radio, a message less for his team and more for race director Michael Masi, the much-maligned referee of such incidents.Felt it went off topic at various points and first couple of chapters spoke more about Jos than Max, some of it was good, other points felt irrelevant. Frans passed away in 2019 at the age of 72, after a long battle with cancer, just a few days after Max had won his eighth Grand Prix. He had been looking to challenge for a rare top ten finish for Tyrrell before he retired from eleventh place, seventeen laps from the end of the race. His maiden season with Toro Rosso paired with Carlos Sainz Jnr is briefly dealt with in one chapter with focus on Australian, Malaysian, Monaco, Spa and Suzuka.

Nevertheless, his progress was perhaps stifled due to the fact that his manager, 12Huub Rothengatter, still believed he could extract hefty retainers for Jos’ services from teams despite the nickname ‘Vercrashen’ still following him round the paddock. Born into motorsport, Max Verstappen started karting aged four and in 2015 became the youngest driver ever to race in F1, less than six months after his 17th birthday.The author goes off into long tangents about other stories (Damon Hill and Jaques Villeneuve’s careers for one) just to highlight a minor point in Verstappens career. Fortunately for him, the case took two years to go through the courts and the controversy did not stop Stewart giving him a drive just a month after the widely reported fracas, replacing the poor-performing Jan Magnussen (whose son Kevin would go on to race against Max in F1). Jos meanwhile did attend the funeral along with Max’s sister Victoria, but not the memorial in Housmans. But it was worth the read, even as someone who's not a Max girlie 😂 don't get me wrong, I love max but off the track.

Following his first Grand Prix victory in 2016, he quickly established himself as a future World Champion and by 2021 he achieved it. The story of his life is obviously not up to date considering that his career is still unfolding but it gives a very good idea of where he has come from. The standard of translation from the original Dutch is perfect, and the book reads more fluently than several F1 biographies I’ve endured in recent years.Wherever possible, I will include appropriate acknowledgement of the original authors, photographers and publishers. As a F1 fan, I knew Max was 90’s Dutch F1 driver Jos Verstappen’s son and a talented child prodigy with such a junior reputation good enough to be subject of an earnest bidding war between Red Bull (Helmut Marko), Ferrari and Mercedes (Toto Wolff). Between them, they rather succinctly sum up how he was viewed by the racing community, as a strong, dominant character with a boot full of talent but an unfortunate habit of ending races in the wall. The writing was average at best and for a piece of nonfiction work, held a lot of assumptions and narrative that I was not necessarily expecting.