乔斯·维斯塔潘曾被寄予厚望，直到一切出错
文章回顾了乔斯·维斯塔潘在1993年代表Footwork车队于埃斯托里尔测试中一鸣惊人，其表现引发巨大关注，甚至登上《Autosport》杂志封面，被称作“F1最炙手可热的新人”。
乔斯·维斯塔潘自己在F1的失意，在多大程度上推动了他为儿子马克斯备战后来堪称现象级的F1生涯倾注一切，这已是赛车运动中的民间传说。
如今或许被忽视的一点是，乔斯自己的F1生涯本应有多出色——曾经有那么一段时间（诚然很短暂），人们对乔斯成为未来F1冠军的期待，与2015年马克斯进入F1发车格时一样热烈。
正如我们与埃德·斯特劳和马克·休斯合作的新一季F1 Rewind播客系列最新一集所探讨的，真正开启这波热潮的，是1993年9月底在埃斯托里尔为Footwork车队进行的一次测试。
当时乔斯离开卡丁车仅两年，刚刚赢得德国F3锦标赛冠军，21岁的他做出的圈速，若放在前一周葡萄牙大奖赛排位赛中，足以让他那辆非常平庸的赛车排在第10位。赛道状况的演变对他的圈速有所影响，但他的整体表现给人留下了巨大印象。维斯塔潘登上了下一周《Autosport》杂志的封面，该杂志称他为“F1最炙手可热的新人”。
埃德·斯特劳：“如果你看看乔斯·维斯塔潘的职业生涯记录，却没有亲身经历过，就很容易低估这次测试产生的巨大影响。”
马克·休斯：“他当时是备受追捧的抢手人物。他从卡丁车直接进入贝内卢克斯锦标赛的GM Lotus车队，并立即赢得冠军。他曾在斯帕赛道更高级别的GM Lotus系列赛中做过一次客串出场。那场比赛他表现惊艳。
“他直接升入三级方程式，赢得德国锦标赛，统治了赛场，看起来注定要在F1赛道上大放异彩。
“各支车队争相抢着要给他一份长期合同。如果你在寻找下一个迈克尔·舒马赫或米卡·哈基宁可能在哪里，那就是你要找的地方。毫无疑问。”
埃德·斯特劳：“基本上所有人都在和他谈。迈凯伦曾在某个阶段给他安排了一次测试。显然还有贝纳通，他最终签约的车队。甚至法拉利也有一点兴趣。那绝对是一场哄抢，因为这就是下一个超级巨星。
“也因为他的上升速度太快了。两年内从卡丁车到F1。近年来我们已经有点习惯非常快的晋升了，比如马克斯·维斯塔潘。但在那个时候，这真的非常非常罕见。
“所以你不仅拥有这位被认为不可思议的车手，而且他还坐着这艘火箭飞船直奔F1。
“如果在1993年底你问，‘好，谁将进入F1赢得比赛并成为未来的世界冠军？’约斯·维斯塔潘就是人们会挑出的名字。”
马克·休斯：“在那个时候绝对是压倒性的。毫无疑问。他正处于重大突破的边缘。”
维斯塔潘和经纪人胡布·罗滕加特选择了贝纳通车队，该车队提供1994年一个赛季的测试和准备工作，然后保证1995年的正式比赛席位——要么在自家车队，要么安排到其他地方。
但维斯塔潘并没有在聚光灯外获得一年的学习时间，而是当JJ·莱赫托在测试撞车中受伤后，他被推上了贝纳通的第二个比赛席位，与迈克尔·舒马赫并肩作战。
维斯塔潘最终在那个席位上两度登场，因为莱赫托回归后仍然挣扎，不得不再次退出，之后他在赛季末被按在替补席上，以便贝纳通评估约翰尼·赫伯特在那辆车上的表现。
这加起来是1994赛季16站中的10站，他驾驶第二辆贝纳通车队赛车，维斯塔潘两次登上领奖台，但也在巴西站首秀中被埃迪·欧文引发的一起连环事故送入一次令人恐惧的腾空撞车，还卷入了臭名昭著的德国大奖赛维修区火灾。
后来他承认，那辆以舒马赫为中心的赛车对他来说“过于敏感”，在他们共同出战的八场比赛中，维斯塔潘从未在排位赛中击败舒马赫，甚至从未在比赛圈结束时领先过舒马赫，平均差距高达1.920秒（2.288%）。
作为准备不足的新秀，在同一车队中与舒马赫对抗，又处在一个动荡的赛季中，这是一项艰巨的任务。而这足以瞬间粉碎维斯塔潘带入F1的所有职业势头和炒作。
马克·休斯：“事后看来，他还没准备好，他来得太早了。如果最初的计划得以实施，他本会在远离大奖赛聚光灯的地方积累大量里程，并且可能在1995年准备得充分得多地到来。
“不仅如此，贝纳通车队完全是以迈克尔·舒马赫为中心，而车队老板弗拉维奥·布里亚托雷则涉足车手管理，然后靠车手赚钱。
“罗滕加特和维斯塔潘在不知不觉中交出了对自己命运的控制权。维斯塔潘不仅在一支完全围绕一名车手打造的车队里开着实质上只是第二梯队的赛车，他甚至都无法掌控自己下一步要去哪里。”
埃德·斯特劳：“他经历了这样一个奇怪的赛季，实际上那第一赛季就抹掉了他职业生涯势头的很大一部分。确实如此，真的真的如此。势头并没有完全消失，还残留着一点‘哦这家伙不错’的印象，但基本上大局已定。”
马克·休斯：“当你陷入那种境地——你是二号车手，不是任何事情的焦点——这会消耗你的精力。而你此前一直习惯于处在一切事物的绝对中心，习惯于被当作一颗正在冉冉升起的巨星来对待，在青训车队里一切都围绕着你，所有人都为你而来，所有人都站在你这边。突然之间沦为一个跟班的角色，我认为这确实会对你造成伤害。
“不仅如此，你还要作为一名新秀去对抗迈克尔·舒马赫。
“而在后来更能反思的岁月里，维斯塔潘也说，即使不考虑装备差异——贝纳通当时确实存在显著的装备差异——即使不考虑所有对他不利的因素，当你近距离看到迈克尔能够做到的一些事情时，你突然不得不对自己说：‘我进来时以为我会赢比赛，我以为我会赢冠军，我会打败所有人’，然后你遇到那样一个人，你会想：‘不，也许我得在这里重新校准。’
“甚至维斯塔潘也承认，也许他并不是迈克尔·舒马赫。
“但他相当出色。比他后来能够展现出来的还要好。”
观看或收听《F1 Rewind》节目，了解更多关于乔斯（Jos）的F1职业生涯，包括后来错失的重大机会，并深入探讨这一切如何影响了他对马克斯（Max）的养育方式以及马克斯通往F1的旅程。
英文原文
The degree to which Jos Verstappen’s own Formula 1 disappointment fuelled everything he poured into son Max’s preparation for his ultimately-phenomenal F1 career is already part of motorsport folklore.
The element that perhaps gets overlooked now is how good Jos’s own F1 career was supposed to be - that there was a period, a short one admittedly, when there was just as much excitement over Jos’s prospects as a future F1 champion as there was over Max’s arrival on the F1 grid in 2015.
As the latest episode of our new F1 Rewind podcast series with Edd Straw and Mark Hughes explores, it’s a test for Footwork at Estoril in late September 1993 that really starts the hype.
Only two years out of karting, and having just won the German Formula 3 title, 21-year-old Jos sets a time that would’ve put his very middling car 10th on the grid for the previous weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix. Track evolution played a part in his time, but the impression his overall performance makes is huge. Verstappen gets the cover slot on the next week’s Autosport magazine, which declares him ‘F1’s hottest new boy’.
Edd Straw: “If you look at Jos Verstappen's career record and didn't experience it or live through it, it's really easy to underestimate how big an impact this test really made."
Mark Hughes: “He was a seriously hot property at that time. He came straight in from karting and won championship immediately in GM Lotus in the Benelux Championship. He'd done a one-off guest appearance in the bigger league GM Lotus series at Spa. He was sensational in that.
“He moved straight to Formula 3, won the German championship, dominated it, and looked set to set the F1 tracks alight.
“The teams were falling over themselves trying to get him on a long-term contract. If you were looking for where the next Michael Schumacher or Mika Hakkinen might be, that's where you are looking. No question.”
Edd Straw: “Everybody was talking to him basically. McLaren gave him a test at one stage. Obviously Benetton, who he eventually signed for. There was a little bit of Ferrari interest even. It was an absolute clamour because this was the next mega-star.
“Also because of how rapid his ascent was. Karting to F1 in two years. In recent years we’ve got a bit more used to really fast ascents, such as Max Verstappen’s. But that was really, really rare at this point.
“So you've not only got this driver who is considered to be incredible, but he's on this rocketship to F1 as well.
“And if in late 1993 you were saying, ‘right, who is going to come into F1 and win races and be a future world champion?’ Jos Verstappen is the name people would have picked out.”
Mark Hughes: “Overwhelmingly at that time. There was no question. He was on the verge of something big.”
Verstappen and manager Huub Rothengatter pick Benetton, which is offering a season of testing and preparation in 1994 then a guaranteed race seat - either in its own squad, or placed elsewhere - for 1995.
But rather than getting a year of learning outside the spotlight, Verstappen is thrust into Benetton’s second race seat alongside Michael Schumacher when JJ Lehto is injured in a testing crash.
Verstappen ultimately gets two stints in that seat, with Lehto still struggling on his return and having to step away again, before being benched at the end of the season so Benetton can evaluate Johnny Herbert in that car.
It adds up to 10 of the 16 1994 rounds in the second Benetton, with Verstappen earning two podiums, but also being sent into a terrifying aerial crash on his debut in Brazil in a pile-up triggered by Eddie Irvine and being caught up in the infamous German GP pit fire.
Later admitting he found the Schumacher-centric car “too nervous” for him, Verstappen never outqualified or even once led Schumacher at the end of a racing lap in their eight outings together with a massive 1.920s (2.288%) average deficit.
Going up against Schumacher in the same team as an underprepared rookie, amid a season of turmoil, was a tall order. And it was enough to instantly crush all that career momentum and hype Verstappen had carried into F1.
Mark Hughes: “In hindsight, he wasn't ready, he came in too early. Had the original plan played out, he would have been getting a lot of mileage away from the spotlight of grands prix and would have probably come in much better prepared in 1995.
“Not only that, Benetton was absolutely centred around Michael Schumacher and team boss Flavio Briatore was into driver management and then making money on drivers.
“Rothengatter and Verstappen had unknowingly surrendered control of his own destiny. As well as being in essentially just the second string car in a team that was totally focused around one driver, Verstappen wasn't even going to be in charge of where he was going to go next.”
Edd Straw: “He has this weird season and actually a big chunk of that career momentum's wiped out by that first season. It really, really is. It's not gone. There's still a residual, ‘oh this guy's good’, but already pretty much the die is cast.”
Mark Hughes: “It saps you of energy when you get into a situation like that where you're the second driver and you're not the focus of anything. And you've been used to being at the absolute centre of everything. You've been used to being treated as a megastar in the making and with everything centred around you in the junior category, with everybody there for you, everybody on your side. And suddenly to be in the lackey role, I think it does damage you.
“And not only that, but you're going up against Michael Schumacher as a rookie.
“And in his more reflective later years, Verstappen also said that even disregarding the equipment differences - and there were significant equipment differences at Benetton - and even disregarding all the factors against him, when you looked at some of the things that Michael was able to do close up and suddenly have to say to yourself, ‘I came in thinking I was going to win races, I think I'm going to win the championship, I'm going to beat everybody’ and then you come up against somebody like that and you think, ‘no, maybe I have to recalibrate here’.
“And even Verstappen acknowledges that maybe he wasn't Michael Schumacher.
“But he was pretty good. Better than he was able to show subsequently.”
Watch or listen to F1 Rewind for much more on Jos’s F1 career, including the later big opportunities that fell through, and an in-depth look at how it all fed into the way he handled Max’s upbringing and journey towards F1.
The Race ·
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