Jos Verstappen who is the father of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship Max Verstappen, has now swtiched focus over to rallying over the past months and now the former F1 driver will be taking on the FIA World Rally Championship as he makes a debut in the WRC2 support category in Ypres Rally, driving a Citroen C3 Rally2 car prepared by the Belgian DG Sport outfit.
Verstappen, like his son, has spent eight season in the F1 between the 90´s and 2000´s before retiring in 2003, since then he has contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans on two occasions in 2008 and 2009 before starting to compete in rally at the beginning of this season. The rally career has went well so far for the 50-year-old Dutchman, he claimed a class victory on his first attempt at the Belgian Rally Championship round of Rally van Haspengouw and took his maiden overall podium with a second place finish in Station Le Seau Monteberg Rally and now he will attempt to take on a world-level rally.
“I have always enjoyed watching rallying, when you see it on television or on the WRC app, it’s always very spectacular. I first drove a rally car maybe one and a half years ago and of course, from that point you just want more and more. So we started to do some events with the Rally2 car and DG Sport and then Ypres came up – and that’s why we are here.” Jos Verstappen said.
Credit: Rally Belgium
“It’s a big step, but we really enjoy the rallying and we are here to learn. I am 50 but I am still learning a lot and I need the experience,” Jos added and continues to talk about his co-driver Harm van Koppen and the challenging pace notes: “I really had to learn that somebody was talking to me, when I was in single-seaters, I didn’t like when the engineer was speaking to me during the race – and now they are speaking all the time to me! I’ve had to get used to it, but it was a really hard time at the start to understand what everything means and what to do. On a rally, you’re busy all the time and you need to drive fast.
“When somebody is talking in your ear all the time, it can distract you a bit at the beginning, but you need to keep concentrated on what to do and things like that. It’s going a little better now and I think the more you do it the more you are learning.”