Johannes Franciscus "Jos" Verstappen (; born 4 March 1972) is a Dutch racing and rally driver who competes in the European Rally Championship as a privateer. Verstappen competed in Formula One between and .
Born and raised in Dutch Limburg, Verstappen began competitive kart racing aged eight. After a successful karting career—culminating in two senior European Championships in 1989—Verstappen graduated to junior formulae. He started his career in Formula Opel Lotus, winning the Benelux Championship in 1992. Later that year, he also won the EFDA Nations Cup, representing the Netherlands. Progressing to German Formula Three in 1993, Verstappen won the title in his rookie season with Opel, further winning the Masters of Formula 3.
Signing for Benetton as a test driver in , Verstappen made his Formula One debut at the , replacing the injured JJ Lehto to partner Michael Schumacher for the opening two rounds of the season. Verstappen formally replaced Lehto after the , scoring two podiums in his rookie season before being replaced by Johnny Herbert in Japan. His podium in Hungary made him the first Dutch driver to score a podium finish in Formula One. Verstappen competed for Simtek in before the team went bankrupt five rounds into the season, returning to his test driver role with Benetton. He became a full-time driver for Footwork in . After non-classified championship finishes in and with Tyrrell and Stewart, respectively, Verstappen became a test driver for the Honda project in . He returned to a race seat with Arrows in , competing with them for a further two seasons. After a year hiatus, Verstappen completed his final Formula One season with Minardi in .
Following his departure, Verstappen moved to A1 Grand Prix with the Netherlands for the 2005–06 season, achieving his sole victory in the South Africa feature race. He then competed in sportscar racing in 2008, winning both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series in the LMP2 class with Van Merksteijn. In rallying, he contested the 2022 Ypres Rally as an independent entrant, and has competed in the European Rally Championship since 2025. Since 2002, Verstappen has coached and managed his son Max from karting at an early age to winning four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles. Max's success in the sport have renewed public scrutiny of Verstappen, who has faced several allegations of assault spanning two decades.
Early career Verstappen began karting at the age of eight, and was participating in national competitions not long after. In 1984, he became Dutch junior champion. Verstappen remained successful, becoming a two-class Karting European Champion in 1989, a feat that remained unmatched until his son Max in 2013.
At the end of 1991, Verstappen made the transition to car racing. He drove in Formula Opel Lotus, a class in which identical cars compete against each other. He won the European championship in his first year, and got an offer to drive in Formula Three with Van Amersfoort Racing, who also developed other drivers such as Christijan Albers, Tom Coronel and Bas Leinders. During that European winter season, he raced in New Zealand Formula Atlantic. Subsequently, in German Formula Three, he won several international competitions, including the 1993 Marlboro Masters and the German Formula 3 championship.
Formula One
1994: Benetton Verstappen first drove a Formula One car when he tested for the Footwork Arrows team alongside Gil de Ferran and Christian Fittipaldi at the Estoril circuit in Portugal. The test took place on 28 September 1993, two days after the Portuguese Grand Prix was held at the same circuit. Despite the large increase in power (from a 175 bhp Formula Three car to the 750 bhp of Formula One), Verstappen set a time that would have qualified him in the preceding race on his fourth timed lap, and improved his time by more than a second after 65 laps. His best lap time of the day was 1:14.45, which was only 0.07 seconds slower than regular driver Derek Warwick had lapped during qualifying, and would have placed him tenth on the grid. He tested again on September 30 and was lapping near his existing record after five laps, but then crashed the car, ending the test early.
After the test, Verstappen was contacted by every Formula One team except Ferrari and Williams, and was eventually signed as the Benetton team's test driver for the 1994 season.
After a crash in pre-season testing by regular driver JJ Lehto (who broke a vertebra), Verstappen drove in the first two races of the season as a substitute, partnering Michael Schumacher and made his Formula One debut at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix. During the race he collided with Eddie Irvine, which triggered a multiple accident also involving Éric Bernard and Martin Brundle. Verstappen's car somersaulted, but he emerged unharmed. At the Pacific Grand Prix Verstappen ran 6th but spun off on cold tyres immediately after a pit stop. Lehto was fit for the next race at Imola, but his performances in subsequent races were disappointing and he was rested by Benetton following the Canadian Grand Prix, allowing Verstappen to return to the race seat.
One of the most dramatic incidents affected Verstappen at the German Grand Prix. During his first scheduled pitstop during the race, fuel leaked onto the car after the fuel hose was disconnected. The car, with Verstappen in it, was engulfed in flames for several seconds. As was usual at the time, Verstappen had slightly opened the visor of his helmet for the pit stop, but apart from slight burns to his nose, he was uninjured. After this incident the fuel delivery hose was modified to incorporate a fail-safe cut-out system.Refuelling to stay in F1 by Andrew Benson, BBC News
A high point in this season was Verstappen's third place during the next Grand Prix in Hungary, Schumacher having allowed Verstappen to unlap himself on the final lap to pass Martin Brundle's stricken McLaren-Peugeot. He took another third place at the Belgian Grand Prix due to Schumacher's post-race disqualification from victory, and a fifth place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. A curiosity was his accident during a practice session for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, in which Verstappen rammed his car into the pit wall causing debris to fly up and destroy a TV installation. Due to this accident, this equipment is now protected from the race track by acrylic glass.
For the last two races of the season, Verstappen was replaced by the more experienced Johnny Herbert in a bid to win the Constructors' Championship for Benetton. Although the team was unsuccessful in this aim, losing out to the rival Williams team, Herbert was signed for the 1995 season instead of Verstappen.
1995: Simtek In , Verstappen was loaned to Simtek by Benetton team principal Flavio Briatore. Despite some strong showings (including running 6th at the Argentine Grand Prix before a poor pit stop and subsequent gearbox failure) Verstappen only finished once in the five races he drove for the team due to technical difficulties. The team had deep financial troubles and went bankrupt after the Monaco Grand Prix. Out of a race drive, Verstappen did some test driving with Benetton and Ligier (then part-owned by Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw). Briatore decided against taking up his option for Verstappen in 1996, signing Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger to drive instead.
1996: Footwork Arrows In , Verstappen drove for the Footwork team. He ran fifth at Interlagos before retiring, and finished sixth in Buenos Aires. Shortly after, the team was taken over by Walkinshaw's TWR organisation. During the Belgian Grand Prix a part of the suspension of Verstappen's car broke off, causing him to crash heavily. He ended up with a prolonged neck injury. Initially Verstappen featured strongly in Walkinshaw's plans for 1997 (the new owner at one point threatening to replace him with a pay driver unless he signed for another season) but the surprise availability of Damon Hill (soon to be crowned World Champion) saw him dropped instead. His form in the second half of the season dropped off as development on the 1996 car ground to a standstill, TWR Arrows focusing instead on 1997.
1997: Tyrrell In , Verstappen went to the Tyrrell team but did not score any points, though he briefly ran fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix. The team suffered from an underpowered Ford Cosworth EDV V8 engine and a lack of funding leaving Verstappen and teammate Mika Salo struggling towards the rear of the field. Verstappen's best result for the team was eighth at the wet Monaco Grand Prix. Before the 1998 season Tyrrell were sold to British American Tobacco, who intended to rebrand the team as British American Racing in 1999 after one final season under the Tyrrell banner. Ken Tyrrell wanted to retain Verstappen alongside Toranosuke Takagi but BAR insisted on taking pay driver Ricardo Rosset alongside the young Japanese driver. Tyrrell himself left the team in disgust over the matter, leaving Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite to run the team.
1998: Stewart
Out of a regular drive for 1998, Verstappen tested for Benetton once again early in the year, but the team would not hire him as a permanent test driver for lack of sponsors. As an experienced, fast free agent Verstappen was a common name mentioned in pit lane gossip as a replacement for underperforming drivers. He would eventually return to the series at the French Grand Prix, replacing Jan Magnussen at Stewart. However, the car was uncompetitive, the team struggled to run two cars to the same level and Verstappen did not perform significantly better than his predecessor. Johnny Herbert was signed to partner Rubens Barrichello for 1999 and Verstappen was left casting around for a drive again.
1999: Honda
Near the end of 1998, Verstappen became the test driver for the Honda Formula One project. He teamed up with old Tyrrell friends Rupert Manwaring and Harvey Postlethwaite, planning to test the new car in 1999 and join the series in 2000. All went well for the operation, with the testing hack showing well against upper-midfield teams such as Benetton and Williams in various test sessions until Postlethwaite died of a heart attack. Not long after, Honda changed their plans from becoming a team to a works engine supplier and Verstappen was again without a Formula One seat. He tested for the Jordan team in case Damon Hill decided to retire before the end of the season but this came to nothing when Verstappen's testing performance was underwhelming and Hill resolved to see out the season.
2000–2001: Return to Arrows
In , Verstappen returned to Arrows, who had put together a package including Supertec engines, a chassis with good straight-line speed and a bevy of sponsors. The car proved to be unreliable, but its speed allowed Verstappen and teammate Pedro de la Rosa to dice with the front runners at several circuits. The design's small fuel tank meant the cars were often lighter than their rivals. In his second race back at Interlagos, he ran sixth before spinning due to a sore neck brought on by his lack of recent seat time. In the wet/dry Canadian Grand Prix, he drove superbly in the later stages to move into fifth position and score his first points since 1996. After the first corner accidents in Austria, de la Rosa and Verstappen ran fourth and fifth but mechanical problems sidelined them both. Verstappen would score only once again, a strong fourth place at Monza.