Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen knows how to chase a championship — but he doesn’t want the chase to cost him time with his parents.
“But at one point, family again comes first because people get older and you really have to savor those moments,” he told F1 correspondent and presenter Lawrence Barretto.
That perspective resurfaced in a Sept. 28 Valuetainment video, prompting a conversation about parents, loss and the ordinary moments we don’t always realize we’ll miss. Verstappen wasn’t a guest on the panel; the hosts played an excerpt of his November 2024 interview after he secured his fourth consecutive world championship in Las Vegas.
The question hanging over his future was an ambitious one: Could he win eight titles? In Formula 1’s account of the 2024 season, seven-time Formula 1 world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton topped the championship tally.
Verstappen said eight would be wonderful, but he didn’t consider it necessary. He finished the 2024 season with nine victories, even with a stretch of 10 races without a win — plenty of evidence of his determination to compete. Still, he wanted room for other things, including having fun and catching up with his family.
Then he brought the conversation down from the record books to something much more familiar: a phone call from Mom or Dad. He described putting off a return call, while recognizing that one day his parents wouldn’t be there to call him at all.
For someone whose life has revolved around racing since childhood, that realization carries weight. Verstappen said his family’s lives had centered on helping him succeed and reach Formula 1 since he was 4; spending more time with them would mean giving something back.
“I love to be competitive. I love to win championships. I love to win races,” he said.
Verstappen also discussed switching off from Formula 1 when he returned home and finding other challenges, including simulator racing. He said he remained happy with racing and wanted to continue while he enjoyed it and felt it was worthwhile — not that he had decided to walk away.
He returned to a similar theme in a separate 2025 interview shared by Red Bull. Career success mattered to him, he explained, but real happiness came from friends, family and loved ones.
Back on the Valuetainment panel, the discussion turned to the memories people carry after losing a parent. Entrepreneur and Valuetainment Investments Group managing director Tom Ellsworth spoke about protecting the moments he had shared with his late father.
“You have to cherish the last words,” Ellsworth said. He urged people to make time deliberately rather than let the demands of a busy world crowd it out.
Ellsworth compared his memories to jewels and encouraged people to keep making new ones with the loved ones they still have. Verstappen’s point wasn’t that ambition has no place — it was that the people who helped him get there deserve a place in his life beyond the next finish line.
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