My dad is also an F1 legend, but Max Verstappen turned to "steel" by his father

From an early age, he was being prepared for an F1 seat by his father Jos, himself an ex-racer and rally driver, whose strict and blunt approach has been credited, and sometimes criticised, as a major factor in his son’s success.

Recently, the Red Bull driver recalled how his father once left him at a petrol station when he was a child and drove off, showing Jos’ ruthless parenting style.

Brundle, whose father Martin raced against Jos in 1995–96 before retiring from F1, believes that such “tough love” helped shape Verstappen’s unbreakable mindset.

“When you go racing, especially the era he went racing in, when stuff went wrong people got hurt. What that does is it leaves you a very short period of time to save your own life before you go out and make your decision. 

“So it necessitates this incredible bluntness into the way things are delivered because stuff needs to be right. It is life or death. And you only potentially have this race, this year or this year opportunity to do it, which makes them quite extreme parents to have.

“And he just looked at me and just went, ‘if you are scared, stop now because it only gets faster from here.’ And that was the only conversation we ever had about it.

“I’ve myself been in two races where two drivers have been really badly injured. And as a driver you roundly believe that it will never happen to you. You just believe with 100% certainty. It’s a really weird mindspace.”