Max Verstappen has a clear opinion on Ferrari’s driver line-up: the Red Bull star explains why he would never have signed Hamilton and Leclerc together
Although Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur spoke to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on Thursday evening in São Paulo to smooth things over, an extraordinary amount had already been said and written about the Ferrari clash in Mexico.
When Verstappen was asked for his opinion in Brazil, the Red Bull driver suggested that he viewed the incident primarily as a consequence of the driver line-up at Ferrari. “If there are two captains on one ship, situations like this are bound to happen,” Verstappen explained to Viaplay.
“Yes, if you simply had a clear number 1 and a clear number 2, then they would have gone through that corner in first and second place and would have finished the race in first and second place too. Or perhaps first and third, but that would have been fine too. As a team, you’d still score plenty of points,” says Verstappen.
According to Leclerc, the incident in Mexico was primarily down to the track layout of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Verstappen, on the other hand, sees it first and foremost as confirmation of his philosophy, which he has been advocating for some time. Even when he puts himself in the shoes of a team principal.
“I’ve said this before. People very often disagree with me, but if I were a team principal – if I had my own team – I would never sign two number-one drivers. Because then you end up with exactly these kinds of situations. That’s perfectly normal.”
“Neither will give way to the other, because naturally both believe they can win. And that’s exactly how I am too. So if I were team principal, I would never opt for two number-one drivers. Some people completely disagree with that, but that’s fine too.”
When asked whether Verstappen also takes this aspect into account in his own career decisions in Formula 1 – for example, when choosing a team or signing a new contract – the four-time world champion replies: “Sometimes you might not even have a choice. But it does make everything more complicated [wenn man zwei Spitzenfahrer hat].”
Verstappen is convinced that all he needs is a competitive car to do his job. The Dutchman made this clear once again recently when referring to the 2023 Formula 1 season, in which his own points tally alone would have been enough to win the Constructors’ Championship.
“If you have a good car, you don’t necessarily need two number-one drivers. Just a decent number 2. The entire history of Formula 1 shows that this can work extremely well, even over many years.”
With these closing remarks, Verstappen is referring not only to his own career, but also to Hamilton, who faced little competition from Valtteri Bottas during most of his championship-winning years at Mercedes, as well as to Michael Schumacher, who had Rubens Barrichello at his side at Ferrari.