Two-time world champion Max Verstappen is struggling to win over some Formula One fans. A fair number seem to reproach him for being too direct in his statements. This trait reveals a character with a distasteful air that can mean a dislike by those that hear such statements. One of his long term friends came to his defence, revealing their ‘truth’ about Max Verstappen.
Uncompromising on the track, Max Verstappen is not the type to let his emotions go crazy when he is happy. The Dutchman is often criticized for his surly outbursts and bluntness. When something doesn’t suit him, Max Verstappen throws a tantrum.
And that doesn’t always go down well with F1 fans, whereas those F1 drivers like Charles Leclerc or Pierre Gasly appear much more agreeable. Nevertheless, one should not be mistaken by appearances. This is what Atze Kerkhof, a long-time friend of Verstappen, thinks.
“Max is misunderstood”
“The way I know Max is very different from the way the world perceives him. In the Netherlands, what we do very well is tell the truth, we say what we think and we are very direct. Max is very ‘Dutch’ in the way he communicates.
“He is very direct and that helps him and the people around him a lot because you know exactly what he is thinking. The problem I see in F1 is that everything is made to be a spectacle, you can’t separate the truth from the deeds anymore.
“That’s where things get really confusing, because the most natural and honest guy on the grid is probably seen as someone who is trying to make a spectacle of himself, which makes me say that Max is misunderstood,” confided Max Verstappen’s friend in comments to the French media.
“He doesn’t care what people think”
Max Verstappen’s strong character is his strength. For Atze Kerkhof, the Dutchman doesn’t care what people think and he doesn’t intend to change to please.
“But the good thing about him is that he doesn’t care what people think. It doesn’t keep him up at night to know what other people say about him. What he says in his private life is often the same as what he says in the media, it’s really what he thinks and that’s what makes him unique,” he says.
It will take a few more years for Max Verstappen to enter the hearts of Formula 1 fans, if ever.
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