SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Max Verstappen was revealed to be a Tom Jones fan on Sunday after the triple Formula One champion followed up his pole-to-flag victory in Brazil with an in-car rendition of the 83-year-old Welsh singer’s 1967 pop hit “Green Green Grass of Home”.
The music was played to the 26-year-old over the team radio after his record-extending 17th win of the season, with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner encouraging his laughing but reluctant Dutch driver to sing along on the victory lap.
“The old house is still standing, though the paint is cracked and dry,” warbled Verstappen, after previously warning — with reason as it turned out — that he was not a good singer.
‘Radio Red Bull’ turned out to be his only fail of the day.
“Just don’t give up the day job,” Verstappen was told. “I think I’m better at that,” he replied.
Horner explained to reporters later that the driver and his father Jos used to listen to Jones’ songs over and over in the car while travelling to go-kart races around Europe in his youth.
“It was the most unlikely song,” said the Briton, whose wife Geri rose to fame with the Spice Girls. “But Jos told me in Qatar (where Verstappen won his third title).
“I said ‘what’s his favourite song?’ He went ‘Green Green Grass’ by Tom Jones.”
“He was off on it. He knew all the words.
“Obviously after the Spice Girls I was thinking he would be totally into Ed Sheeran or somebody, a contemporary of his age range. But Tom Jones?”
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, additional reporting by Gabriel Araujo, editing by Toby Davis)
