Max Verstappen: From getting stuck on a toilet to complete F1 domination

Thomas Maher 02 Nov 2023 2:00 PM

Max Verstappen emerges from the Red Bull garage during the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

An FIA race steward and a former team-mate of Jos Verstappen has recounted an amusing memory from Max Verstappen’s childhood.

Max Verstappen has been around the F1 paddock for a lot longer than his own racing career, due to his father Jos’ time in the sport with stints at Benetton, Arrows, Tyrrell, Stewart, and Simtek.

In 2001, Jos raced with Arrows, and a very young Max, three to four years old at the time, was a frequent visitor to the Arrows garage and hospitality – meaning he also got to know Arrows racing driver Enrique Bernoldi.

Enrique Bernoldi recounts memory of Max Verstappen getting stuck on the toilet

Appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Bernoldi went into detail of his relationship with the Verstappens – including a breakdown of his friendship with Jos – and recounted that one of his earliest memories of Max was when the child popped off to use the toilet by himself.

Unfortunately, Max wasn’t quite ready to be fully independent in the bathroom, and it led to a moment of amusing panic as he got trapped perched on the throne!

“I met him many times, many races,” Bernoldi said, when asked if he’d met the young Max Verstappen during 2001.

“Max was a small boy and actually, once… this was quite a funny story.

“I had to go by my room in the motorhome, just before a race. Max went to the restroom and he got stuck on the toilet!

“He had a little child plastic booth, and he got stuck in the toilet!

“I could hear some noises and he wasn’t coming out! I went in, and took him – in his booth – and gave him to his mum Sophie to solve it!”

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Enrique Bernoldi expresses admiration for Max Verstappen mentality of domination

More than 20 years later, the 26-year-old Verstappen dominates Formula 1 as a recently crowned three-time World Champion (and can presumably now urinate without supervision) and Bernoldi, now a frequent FIA steward, expressed his admiration for the mentality he brings to the sport.

“I’m very impressed by him,” he said.

“I think Max is only 25 and he has achieved [so much]. He’s passed Ayrton Senna on wins already so I am sure he will stand up there with the greatest of all time.

“I think he’s up there with Lewis [Hamilton], with Senna, with Michael [Schumacher]. He’s really, really fast now. Also what I like the most about him is the mindset of domination against his opponents.

“They go to try to block him, or try to pass him, and it feels like they know, in their heads, they’re going to lose – he will come out ahead. The way he just brakes so late and gets alongside the guy and the guy can’t do anything.

“He’s there, coming from such a long way back. He’s done that many times. He did that when he won the championship the first time, he’s done that, to many, many drivers, and I think his mindset of his domination is really, really impressive.”