Signing for Benetton as a test driver in 1994, Verstappen made his Formula One debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix, replacing the injured JJ Lehto to partner Michael Schumacher for the opening two rounds of the season.

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.

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.

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.

[1] 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.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

[8] 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)[10] but the surprise availability of Damon Hill (soon to be crowned World Champion) saw him dropped instead.

[1] 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.

[1] 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.

As an experienced, fast free agent Verstappen was a common name mentioned in pit lane gossip as a replacement for underperforming drivers.

[1] In 2000 he returned to Arrows,[1] 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,[1] but its speed allowed Verstappen and teammate Pedro de la Rosa to dice with the front runners at several circuits.

In his second race back at Interlagos he ran 6th before spinning due to a sore neck brought on by his lack of recent seat time.

[14] The Supertec engines were replaced by Asiatech units and de la Rosa was dropped on the eve of the season for the Red Bull-backed Enrique Bernoldi.

[14] At Interlagos, he ran into the back of leader Juan Pablo Montoya just after being lapped[16] while at Montreal, he moved into the top six but retired with brake failure.

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, he had been running ahead of eventual winner Giancarlo Fisichella on the same strategy only to spin off on standing water, but generally the year was one to forget – and many noted that Verstappen was largely outperformed by rookie teammate Justin Wilson.

[22] He achieved two podium places,[22] and scored a total of 17 championship points[22] (117 in the modern system) which makes him the second best performing Dutch driver in Formula One to date, beaten only by his son, Max.

[27] After winning the 1000km Catalunya and 1000km Spa, and finishing second in the 1000km Monza, Jos Verstappen won the LMP2 class of the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Contrarily, Jos says he made his son's kart perform worse and told him false rules about races because Max was "winning so easily".

Jos has denied that he abused Max, who, journalist Erik van Haren reports, publicly has a good relationship with his father.

[34][35][36][37] When Max Verstappen was teammates with Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing, the team released a promo video of the two having a conversation.

[34][38] After a 1998 incident at a karting track in which a man suffered a fractured skull, Verstappen and his father, Frans, were found guilty in court of assault but were each given a five-year suspended jail sentence after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the victim.

[39] In December 2008, after Verstappen and Sophie Kumpen were effectively separated, he appeared in court in Tongeren, Belgium, charged with assaulting her.

[41] In January 2009, Verstappen again had to appear in court and was convicted to a three months suspended prison sentence and a 1650 Euro fine for sending Kumpen threats and visiting her house despite the restraining order.

[43] In January 2012, he was arrested on attempted murder charges following accusations that he drove a car into his ex-girlfriend in Roermond - who was taken by ambulance to hospital with heavy bruises and abrasions.

[46] Verstappen was also accused of destroying two cell phones, jewellery and the handbag of his girlfriend, and he faced two weeks of imprisonment and 20 hours of community work service.

According to the official report, it happened shortly after the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix De Telegraaf, a large Dutch media group, said Frans Verstappen filed a complaint with the police.

“We’ve seen before that Jos has loose hands but this was the limit,” Frans, showing multiple wounds and bruises on his body and head, is quoted as saying.