Wait, Max tried to convince his F3 team to sign Charles???? I need you to tell me everything about that, and to link every article or video where they speak about that please
Ah sorry, I can't remember the original source! It's been mentioned a couple of times that Max recommended Charles to his old F3 team after he signed for Toro Rosso at the end of 2014. I think it was also mentioned a couple of times on Twitter by journalists who follow karting/junior formulas. (Maybe I should start keeping receipts on Lestappen crumbs! 😅)
As a matter of fact, Max's old team Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR, a Dutch team) did sign Charles for 2015. Max spent only 2014 in single seaters before jumping to F1. Apparently Charles was still looking for a seat (Nicolas Todt was already his manager, but this was still in the pre-FDA, pre-financially secure Charles days, and his racing career was far from guaranteed), and Max supposedly recommended Charles to his old team because he didn't want his talented former karting rival to not have a seat.
Their old team boss Frits van Amersfoort had a lot of positive things to say about both of them, referring to Max and Charles as Senna and Prost, stating that he hopes they will fight each other for championships, He spent 20 minutes waxing poetic about them back in 2015 (interesting insight on young Max and young Charles actually).
I think Charles's abilities would have earned him a seat somewhere for 2015 anyway, and his manager Nicolas Todt was never going to let his talent go to waste, but I always thought it was sweet that no matter how much they couldn't stand each other as kids, talent recognized talent unconditionally. There's always such an underlying respect between Max and Charles. At the end of the day, they wanted to compete against the best - and that meant each other, and they knew it.
Young Charles Leclerc driving for the Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing back in 2015.
(Fun fact: He raced under #7, which is why he wanted that number when he entered F1, but alas it was already taken.)
Young Max Verstappen in his F3 car with Van Amersfoort Racing, 2014.
(Max raced under #30 back in the day.)
TL;DR: Lestappen go way back. Another example of the all-consuming soulmate-ism of their intertwined lives and careers.
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