Verstappen was just four when, in 2002, he telephoned his father, Jos, then himself a Formula One driver, in tears from a race track near their home in Genk.Jos was in Canada and his young son was distraught after seeing that other children were permitted to drive.
"That's when it all started," says Jos, who had previously reasoned that seven would be a good age to introduce his son to go-kart racing.
Jos was 30 by this time and, with his own rather more mediocre career (no wins and two podium finishes in 106 F1 races) fizzling out the following year, ready to dedicate his life to facilitating his son's dream.
They would duly spend most of the next decade together travelling inside the family van to races all over Europe. Italy became a favoured destination – most of the competitions and best facilities were there – and a normal weekend would start at 2.30pm on Friday once school had finished with a journey across several borders.
These long hours spent talking constantly about young Max's F1 ambitions became just as integral to his education as all the first-hand experience he was accumulating out on the track. "To win the world championship – that was the goal," says Jos.
A pushy parent? Perhaps, but the crucial truth is that Max was showing not just an inherent flair for racing – his mother Sophie was also a driver – but an insatiable thirst for success.
"If he didn't have this, I wouldn't have gone so deep because go-karts are very expensive if you do it internationally," says Jos. "Once it starts with your own child, you go a lot further.
"You do a lot more for it – you don't leave anything untouched. And you could see, compared to all the children of his age, he was definitely a lot further [on]. We were competing against children two or three years older and that makes quite a big difference."
The mantra was always to test his son and so, rather than make the common parental mistake of following in front with the metaphorical snow-plough, Jos would instead create speed bumps.
Max Verstappen in 2014, the year before his F1 debut. Photo / Getty
Some of the anecdotes are now the stuff of legend. Like the practice sessions in Genk even when temperatures had dropped below zero and Max had lost feeling in his fingers. Or, later, when he crashed in a World Cup race in Italy following a particularly impetuous manoeuvre.
Jos simply left Max to pick up the pieces of his kart and they then did not exchange a single word during the 1,000km journey home. "I wanted to talk about my opinion about the incident but he didn't – he stopped at a fuel station and told me to get out," recalls Max. Jos says that he wanted his son "to feel the pain" amid a sense that it was all coming just a bit too easy.
By 2013, Max was 16 and world champion in the highest kart racing category. It was time to move up to car racing and, after a stint in Formula Three, his status as child prodigy became evident. In 2015, aged 17, Max became the youngest driver to compete in F1. In 2016, aged 18, he became the youngest driver to win an F1 race.
By the time that he had arrived in Abu Dhabi this week, still aged only 24, he had won 18 times and was within sight of becoming the fourth youngest world champion in history.
A reputation for risk-taking – and sometimes stepping over the edge in his thrilling Senna-esque desire to succeed – was evident right from his first season in F1. At the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix, he was involved in a high speed collision with Romain Grosjaen which ended with him flying nose-first into the barriers. Felipe Massa branded him "dangerous". His father says that his son's attitude has never changed and it was summed up in a 2019 BBC interview.
"After my career, if I would have won five championships but I'm maybe not the most liked person, for me that doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, it's all about winning," he said.
"And that maybe sounds arrogant, but... I would do anything – or everything – to win. If it's a little bit, not dirty, but in a hard way, I will do it. Some people find me aggressive, others very aggressive and some people don't. I think I am myself."
Verstappen also encouraged the idea of a major contrast between his character and that of Lewis Hamilton. "He's a different driver than me, less aggressive – he doesn't know how to race like I do," said Verstappen, before referencing the influence of his father.
Jos Verstappen congratulates his son on becoming world champion. Photo / Getty
It was certainly fitting that Jos should be trackside in Abu Dhabi. Before the race, he was filmed down on his knee with his head resting in his arms.
He then walked away and seemed briefly to lose hope during the race but was back to watch the final lap and, at the moment of ultimate triumph, actually just went very pale. He looked in deep shock, even if he did remember to put on a 'Max Verstappen – world champion' hoodie. "I am very proud – I think Max was the driver this year and really deserved it," he said. "He will always fight – it is in his DNA. He doesn't feel the pressure. He doesn't even think about it."
Verstappen described the finish as "insane" and said that his mind had instantly gone back to all those years spent travelling around Europe in his father's van.
For all the controversy, there was then a genuinely touching moment as Jos Verstappen passed Hamilton's father, Anthony, in the pit lane. There was no acrimony. No desire to discuss what had just happened. Just a hug and mutual appreciation of how their shared parental devotion had brought them together for this epic drama in the Abu Dhabi desert.
