Jos Verstappen Quotes

I turned away from bikes when I got a bambino kart for my seventh birthday and started doing some karting, just around some cones at home, but I didn't think at that point I knew I wanted to go into F1, it was more just for fun.

When you are a kid racing karts, you want to be an F1 driver.

Reaching F1 was always the ultimate goal, I suppose, ever since driving a go-kart my father had bought me for my fifth birthday.

I started racing go karts when I was six. I just loved everything about racing. I was raised in a racing family. And I always wanted to race for a living at the highest level I could.

I'm a car fanatic and each morning I wake up with a smile on my face, whether I'm commentating on the Formula One or at Silver Hatch racetrack in Roary the Racing Car.

The most important influence in my childhood was my father.

In my city of Maracay, there is a go kart circuit about five minutes from my home. When I was about three or four years old, I said I wanted to race, but I was too young; then, when I reached the age of seven, my father gave me a kart and we started from there.

When I was young, I didn't like going to school, but I loved my dad. He was my professor.

My mom wouldn't let me do child acting.

I wanted to be a race car driver when I was a kid.

I always wanted to be a racing driver. Even if it was not F1, it would be something else.

I was fascinated by racing as a kid, but no way would I have thought I'd make it into Formula One from here, from being from Perth, racing on little local go-kart tracks, you know.

I will do something, time to time, with motor racing. But I'll never go back, I think, to drive full-time because I've lost that anger, that desire.

I didn't go to school that much! I was racing go karts and testing nearly every day, so school wasn't the first priority.

I have had this opportunity to go on a journey and experience the ride of racing cars, of different championships around the world, go-karts, F3, F4, and now F1. It's been so amazing to be able to experience that. There have been bad days, good days, and it's been a great ride.

Since I was a child I've been looking up to Formula One. Dreaming to be a Formula One driver.

I would probably build somewhere between a half-mile and three-quarter-mile track. It would be sort of like Indianapolis Raceway Park. When I was a kid, that was my favorite track.

My recommendation is to try and do the best you can in go-karting to be spotted by a big name like Red Bull or Ferrari. And like that you have a chance. If not, nowadays it's very difficult. It's always been, but these days, even more.

Growing up, as a kid, my father was always there.

When I first climbed into a go-kart, aged 13, I thought to myself: 'This is what I want to do with my life, and I want to drive F1.'

I used to go to work with Dad on the weekend. We'd drive past an indoor go-kart track every now and then, and we went there a few times. I was never tall enough, so I always left upset. I think I was seven when I was the right height, and I was like, 'Please let me have a go.' It was love at first sight.

I started racing at club level, then the Scottish championship, then the British championship, then the European, then the Worlds. I went through all the various ranks. I spent a good ten years doing karting.

Already in go-karts, I said, 'OK, that's what I really want to do professionally as a career, as a job.'

I wanted to be a professional motor racer. It was only due to lack of sponsors that I could not do it.

I am living my childhood dream of racing in Formula 1 and I've put my whole life into achieving that dream so it is only natural for me to be giving absolutely everything I've got, to achieve success in racing and the day I no longer do that I will retire from racing immediately.