Journalist Mariana Becker on Max Verstappen | Motorsport.com interview
Mariana: I got to know him a bit not just in Monaco, but I saw him. You know, in the press, who have been around for a long time. We know when the interviewee is trying to create a headline, or they're trying to provoke someone else, when they're using their words in a political way. And I've never seen Max do that. If it happened, it was very few times, because he's very– That's it. (...)
He was raised that way, Max is like that, he was raised in a tough manner. And I'm surprised at how he can still be delicate and sensitive to things, given the way he was brought up, the way he was raised.
I always made a point, even during the time of polarisation between the 'bad Max' and the 'good Hamilton' and having a good relationship with Hamilton, to show that Max, in fact, when he said that, it was this. That in fact, you're not seeing it, but look at what he did there. He went there to apologise to the other guy, he asked if so-and-so was okay. I've been trying to show, since 2021, the other side of Max that people don't see. Because it's very easy, you as the person spreading the news, he comes in furious and says, I went off the track because the guy's an idiot. Then you say, wow, what an idiot the way he talks. (...) I have this obligation to show another side. I think it's unfair to single out one guy as the scapegoat when you only see one side. You have to consider the other side too. (...) I think he always had, yes, a very decent, very fair, just side, it seems to me, from what I see. He's always been a hot-headed guy, he'll always get furious, doesn't know– doesn't like losing, no one there does, you know? It's not that he doesn't know how to lose, he does. He says, so-and-so was faster, but he'll get furious, right? And I think he matured over the years as well. And he started winning more titles and more things, he started feeling comfortable. Again, it's all together. He started feeling comfortable to say, alright, this isn't the end of the world. (...)
What he does now is that he doesn't wear himself out as much, neither publicly nor personally. He now has a daughter, he learned, imagine, that lad who said he would headbutt someone, who didn't want to know– then he starts living with a woman who has a small daughter, he embraces this daughter. He was very young.
He embraces this daughter as if she were his own and he learns, I don't know if he already knew, to deal with a child, with the affection, with the love of a child, with the child who will point out your flaws and who won't point them out and who you'll come home to and she'll still want to hug you and sleep with you. I think that's something that changes a man. Little by little, right? I noticed that a lot with Kimi. Kimi Raikkonen, after he had kids, he softened in a way. (...)
