Stan, Jorrit and Max, May 2009
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Stan, Jorrit and Max, May 2009
sorry but who is stan?
stan pex is max's bestie since he was a little shrimp! when max was not even one apple tall he saw stan karting and asked his mum to ask richard pex (stan's dad) how old he was bc he ALSO wanted to kart. video here of him talking about it.
richard and jos then basically got kart-married and raised their boys on the road together and the boys drove for pex racing (article fully transcribed by @thissying here (sying is also my source for all pex lore everyone say thank you sying)). max watched jorrit (older pex boy and another max bestie) win things and then went '😈😈 i want that'. he's brought stan to races a few times - stan and richard were both there for ad21 and got to watch him win his first championship 🥹 stan runs his own karting team and arvid lindblad apparently drives/drove for them which is just everything to me. that's his son-in-law.
I have definitely missed lore here but summary: max did not "learn the meaning of friendship" after he joined f1. he already HAD his besties!!!!
Max and Stan
And another one 🥹
Max Verstappen sees friend Stan Pex win kart race
the way max will never recount the story of how he got started in go-karting without also mentioning that to this day stan is his best friend 🥺