Michael Perridon: the businessman who passed on sponsoring Max Verstappen. Michael Perridon, founder of Trust, reflects on his decision not to sponsor Max Verstappen.

From sponsorship that led to an undesirable result to the great mistake of not investing in another driver who, in this case, would have guaranteed an astronomical return: looking back, the Dutch businessman Michael Perridon now regrets his decision, revealing what happened with the Verstappen family at two different moments, between Jos and his son, Max.

Guest on the podcast The Dutch Dragons, Michael Perridon, founder of the electronics company Trust, looked back to the early 2000s, when he decided to sponsor Jos Verstappen during the latter’s time at Minardi, with the company’s logo appearing on the side of the PS03: “I always sponsored Jos Verstappen with my company, Max’s father, and that cost millions,” explained Michael Perridon, highlighting the failure of his investment.

However, during his F1 career, Verstappen Sr. had Raymond Vermeulen as his manager, the same manager as his son Max, the four-time reigning world champion. It was Vermeulen who approached Michael Perridon with a specific proposal, which Michael Perridon declined: “At one point, his manager came to me and said, ‘Do you want to invest five million? In exchange, you’ll get 10% of all of Max’s earnings for the rest of his life.’ But what did Jan Lul (a fictional Dutch character used to refer to someone who has made a mistake) say? I won’t do it. I’ve invested enough in your family. A small mistake, we all make mistakes sometimes.” A mistake that, in reality, turned out to be very costly for Michael Perridon, given the astronomical return on what would have been his investment, with Verstappen’s 60 million salary at Red Bull: “A big mistake,” he concluded.