Verstappen: 'Dutch drivers weren't taken seriously, but that's changing'

Verstappen: 'Dutch drivers were not taken seriously'

According to Verstappen, it was more difficult for Dutch drivers to put themselves in the spotlight, both in karting and in the junior classes. However, he does see this slowly changing. "As a Dutchman, you weren't really taken seriously for a very long time. If you look at the dominant countries in motorsport; we were not among them. That is changing a bit now," he says in conversation with De Telegraaf.

"Look, Formula 1 is an English-oriented sport and in terms of media and things like that, you are in the minority. But in terms of drivers, it is increasingly being observed that there can also be very good drivers from the Netherlands and not just from the standard racing countries," he adds.

Verstappen wants to help sim drivers move to 'real' motorsport

With four world titles behind his name, Verstappen is considered a role model for many young drivers. However, a career in motorsport, let alone reaching F1, is a costly affair, especially in the beginning: "Karting has become very expensive," he says. "That's why I try to make racing via the sim world more attractive."

In this way, Verstappen hopes to help drivers through another avenue to make their dream of a motorsport career possible. For example, he is currently trying to get his teammate at Team Redline, sim driver Chris Lulham, to move on to 'real' motorsport. Lulham has previous experience in karting, but he switched to sim racing at 16.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy

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