Sebastian Vettel already did it in 2015, and Lewis Hamilton is moving to Ferrari next year. Could Max Verstappen also imagine a move to the Italians? “In my life, I know from my experiences so far that you should never say never. But for me it’s not even in my head now,” the Dutchman clarifies.
That probably wouldn’t change if Verstappen had six or seven world titles under his belt with Red Bull. “No, not necessarily,” believes the 26-year-old. “I get it, it’s a nice brand that has achieved a lot in this sport. But at the moment my head is only with this team. That’s what I spend my time on. Everything else is secondary.”
“I don’t want to sound disrespectful or anything like that. I have a lot of respect for the Ferrari brand, but I’m very happy where I am at the moment,” says Verstappen, explaining his current decision. “I’m comfortable in my environment, so there’s nothing for me that I want to change or whatever.”
“Hard to have an opinion on it”
“If you dream of driving for Ferrari, then I understand that you want to go there,” said the three-time world champion on the sidelines of the presentation of the RB20. “And again: We don’t know the conversations they had at Mercedes and Ferrari, what was promised, what they think is coming. That’s why it’s hard to have an opinion on that.”
“From our side, you can’t give an honest assessment of why you made this decision,” reminds Verstappen, who doesn’t want to make an assessment but, according to Helmut Marko, is amused by it. “But if he’s happy with this move then he should go, I think it’ll look cool. And of course I hope for their sake that it’s a success, but we don’t know that at the moment.”
The timing of the announcement was surprising. “That makes it a little more difficult for the entire team to work together all year round,” believes the Red Bull driver. “But of course everyone is a professional, so I’m sure they can handle it, also because they’ve had so much success together. But of course you won’t be allowed to take part in certain meetings.”
Could the change possibly even be an advantage for Verstappen and Red Bull? “Well, I don’t think about whether it benefits us or not,” the Dutchman remains diplomatic. “At the end of the day we just have to focus on ourselves, that’s difficult enough.”
Horner: Hamilton makes “brave decisions”
“I think everyone was surprised, probably including his previous team, that Lewis was moving to Ferrari, but he obviously saw something there that he believes in and that will benefit him more than staying where he is,” it says Conclusion from Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “And I think for Formula 1 a link between Lewis and Ferrari is really exciting.”
“Of course he still has another season ahead of him with his current team, but he has proven in the past that he is not afraid to make bold decisions,” reminds Horner. “His move from McLaren to Mercedes didn’t seem like the right decision, but it turned out to be a brilliant one. So I’m sure he thought long and hard about it.”
For Sergio Perez, the move from Mercedes to Ferrari is also attractive from another perspective: “Interesting! But more than that… I think it will be interesting to observe the dynamics from the outside,” says the Mexican. “When a driver changes teams, we all know how jealous the teams are about sharing information.”
“Lewis was there for many years and he will take a lot of knowledge with him to another team,” says Perez, alluding to the knowledge from Mercedes, at least some of which could end up in the hands of the Italians through the move. “So there will be an interesting dynamic that you can observe from the outside.”